Art, medicine, and the corpse

Scientists and artists have collaborated for centuries to gain a detailed understanding of the human body, both for the advancement of the medical profession, and for artists to explore representations of the human form in their works.

But a spate of anatomical-based art exhibitions in recent years have sparked controversy over issues surrounding the public display of human bodies. In the UK, these exhibitions happened to, coincidentally, occur at a time when hospital and mortuaries around the country were discovered to have been retaining human organs without consent for years, adding a painful dimension to what has become a wider debate about ownership, consent and decency.

Artist and writer Jane Wildgoose and Dr Ruth Richardson, a historian and writer, met at an appeal in 1998 for a sculptor, Anthony Noel-Kelly, who was being prosecuted for theft of specimens from the Royal College of Surgeons. United by an interest in the issues the case raised, the idea to host a conference was born and Wildgoose comments, although it has been three years since the idea’s first inception, the subject has continued to become more and more relevant with recent developments.

This year, one of the most controversial anatomical exhibits has toured the UK – Professor Gunther von Hagens’ Bodyworlds. The exhibit includes over 200 anatomical specimens and corpses, preserved by the Professor by using a technique he developed, plastination, which replaces body fats and fluids with polymers. In this case, permission to use the corpses was given by the participants before they died. Despite the controversy the exhibit has caused in London and in von Hagens’ native Germany, where it was compared by church groups to the works of Nazi doctors, over 400,000 people have visited the exhibit since March and it has now been extended until December 1 due to demand.

But although it is the first to use the unique preservation technique, other exhibitions have shown similarly graphic works over the years; including the Royal College of Arts’The Quick and the Dead – Artists and Anatomy in 1997; Spectacular Bodies – The Art and Science of the Human Body from Leonardo to Now at London’s Hayward Gallery in 2000; and Psycho at the Anne Faggionato Gallery, also in 2000.

Clearly, there is a renewed artistic interest in the human body. Wildgoose says the reasons for this are extremely complex, but points to the rise in the human consciousness in light of medical technologies, such as genetic engineering, cosmetic surgery, organ transplants, that are falling short of expectations to perfect the body.

‘The public awareness of the potential, vulnerability and ownership of the body has developed enormously over the past years particularly with medical advances,’ she says. ‘I think the media and press reporting of disasters and death also brings into the public consciousness a sense of vulnerability and immediate danger to the body, which may not be impinging on personal life, but we are constantly engaged and reminded of what is going on all around the world.’

‘There are a huge number of reasons why consciousness has changed and therefore the consciousness of artists have changed,’ Wildgoose explains.

The Business of the Flesh conference next Saturday will bring together doctors, scientists, artists, historians of medicine and art, legal experts and families of those whose organs were kept without consent, for informed debate.

‘I think the whole debate does revolve around issues of consent, but that is why we feel it’s very important to have all sides of the argument represented at the conference,’ Wildgoose emphasises.

She adds one of the speakers is an artist whose work deals with the emotional impact of organ retention without consent, drawing on personal experience.

I question Wildgoose about the possible impact on audience members, considering the mix of artists and scientists working with anatomy attending alongside family members affected by the organ retention scandal.

Wildgoose explains a counsellor is attending to offer support to anyone distressed by imagery or discussion, but also wishes to emphasise the conference is not designed to sensationalise the families situation’s, or the subject.

‘Our intention is not to provoke sensation, it is actually to have genuinely informed debate and for every side of the case to be able to listen.’

Wildgoose’s interest in the subject is not just informed by contemporary issues, but is explored from a deeply historical perspective.

Her address, she explains, discusses the context and content of a number of situations in which a dead body is displayed. In particular, people tend to forget museums exhibits, she says, drawing on the Egyptian section of the British Museum as an example.

‘People go in droves, they don’t think it is upsetting, they don’t even stop to think whether it is appropriate or not,’ she continues, weighing up the argument carefully, ‘I mean largely in relation to museums – in this country we routinely take our children to museums where no questions are asked about the fact we are looking at the human body.

‘People are titillated because of a genuine fascination but also the sense, that this is actually quite disturbing.’

Wildgoose also highlights a paradox when it comes to the taboo practice of artists and scientists working with corpses.

‘I think there is something interesting to be looked at, which is taboo, surrounding the investigation of the body and tampering with the corpse – something which artists and scientists have to overcome when working with the body.

‘This, perhaps, can lead us as artists and scientists with an interest in the subject, to forgetting that there are other people for whom this is still extremely delicate territory.’

‘The Business of the Flesh – Art, Science and Access to the Human Body’ in association with The Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art, will take place November 2, 10am-6pm, at: