Inside Out: Body Imaging Sculptures by Angela Palmer

30 January - 20 May 2007

Qvist Gallery, Hunterian Museum

The increasing cross-over between science and art has seen an explosion of work in a myriad of media worldwide, resulting in exciting collaborations between the disciplines. Angela’s work is largely based on details derived from MRI and CAT scans which she engraves or draws onto multiple sheets of glass, layer upon layer. This technique allows her to use the scientific anatomy of the human body stripped of its recognisable features.

Most of Angela’s work is based on MRI scans of herself - rebuilding the body, slice by slice, to create a self-portrait. While the works may not be instantly recognisable as a portrait, they are objective representations – removing the familiar to expose the extraordinary architecture of the internal human form.

Artist's statement:

Angela Palmer’s interest in anatomy began while drawing cadavers in the dissection rooms at Oxford University as an undergraduate at The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. She began to depict the body three-dimensionally using the details from cadavers drawn on multiple sheets of glass - a technique directly inspired by Dorothy Hodgkin’s model showing the structure of penicillin, on show in this exhibition.

The artist progressed from cadavers to MRI scans of herself. The first collaboration was with Dr Stephen Golding and Dr Chris Alvey and their team, who performed a full body scan on Angela at The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Besides using the material for many of the engraved and drawn works in glass shown here, the artist laser-cut the outline of her scans in orange Perspex, to produce a human ‘topography’ of her body.

She went on to collaborate on several fMRI projects with Dr Mark Lythgoe, a neuroscientist at University College London, including a scientific study on the brain of the mathematical wizard, Carol Vorderman. An exhibit shown here, depicting an axial study of the artist’s brain, was based on fMRI scans arranged by Dr Lythgoe and performed by Dr David Thomas at UCL.

News of a vertical MRI scanner at Aberdeen University - the first of its kind in Europe - greatly excited the artist as it enabled her to depict the body in a position other than lying horizontally in a restricted ‘tube.’ She then took up a contrasting ‘crouching’ position in the scanner, under the direction of Professor Frank Smith - one of the first to apply MRI to clinical medicine - and his assistant Bev McLennan.

Angela is currently working on a project she initiated using CT scans taken of a 2000-year-old Egyptian child mummy belonging to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Dr Golding and Dr Alvey are now preparing a detailed report based on over 2,500 scans. The artist is planning to produce a film based on the scans as well as a recreation of the mummy in glass.

List of works exhibited:

• Self portrait, engraved glass. In collaboration with Dr Mark Lythgoe, University College London. Axial scans performed by Dr David Thomas.
• Self portrait, engraved glass. In collaboration with Dr Stephen Golding, The John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. Sagittal scans performed by Helen Gill.
• Self portrait, engraved glass. In collaboration with Professor Frank Smith, Aberdeen University. Sagittal scans performed by Bev McLennan.
• Self portrait, engraved glass. In collaboration with Dr Stephen Golding, The John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. Sagittal scans performed by Helen Gill.
• Self portrait, drawing on glass. In collaboration with Dr Stephen Golding, The John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. Sagittal scans performed by Helen Gill.
• Self portrait, drawing on glass. In collaboration with Professor Frank Smith, Aberdeen University. Coronal scans performed by Bev McLennan.
• Portrait, drawing on glass. Details taken from cadaver sections.
• Self portrait, engraving on glass. In collaboration with Professor Frank Smith, Aberdeen University. Coronal scans performed by Bev McLennan.
• Self portrait, engraving on glass. In collaboration with Dr Mark Lythgoe, University College London. Axial scans performed by Dr David Thomas.
• Self portrait, engraving on glass. In collaboration with Dr Stephen Golding, The John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. Sagittal scans performed by Helen Gill.
• Film. In collaboration with Professor Frank Smith, Aberdeen University. Based on coronal scans performed by Bev McLennan.
• Model of the structure of pencillin, made by Dorothy Hodgkin, c.1944 (loaned by the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford).

More information:

• Introduction panel from exhibition (pdf)
• Artist's statement from exhibition (pdf)
• Description panel for film from exhibition (pdf)
• Panel for Dorothy Hodgkin's model from exhibition (pdf)
• Exhibition press release
• Visit the artist's website (external link)