This film was made as an installation piece for the ANATOMICA exhibition at the Dalhousie Museum Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2015. It is based on participants responses to workshops they took part in where they drew foetal and neonatal specimens from Barts Pathology Museum and UCL pathology collections. The sound is of participants drawing, shifting uncomfortably, focusing intensely on their unique experience. The words they used to describe the experience are hand drawn and these, along with my drawings appear reversed, white in a dark space. They glow, haunting and fleeting, representing the fragility of these vulnerable specimens that if not used and maintained properly may be in danger of disappearing altogether. The film originally ran for 6 minutes 10 seconds on a continuous loop.
Drawing Parallels is a ‘Share Academy’ collaboration between Barts Pathology Museum QMUL and UCL teaching and research collections. Share Academy is an Arts Council England funded programme that aims to develop and foster relationships between London specialist museums and academics at UCL and the University of the Arts London. This project focuses on the importance of pathology specimens and investigates how artistic encounters can be used to collect responses and issues towards foetal and neonatal specimens. The aim is to offer space for discussion about them, the way they are displayed and how they are used and offer ways to give these specimens an opportunity to be re-valued and appreciated.
