Idea jot down

Just a quick post: had an idea about creating a self portrait using the skin fragments I've been collected from my body. The concept is simple and just like sprinkling glitter onto glue, only using a stencil of my face and skin instead of glitter. I'm not sure hoe well it will work as it will be partially invisible but could be an interesting comment on invisibility and trying to stay unnoticed.

Revisiting an old idea

My current idea is one I had many years back, back in my first year of Uni when I made my little triptych 'Blood, Sweat and Tears' in tiny little craft jars. These were meant to of been part of a bigger set that would contain a whole manner of body 'collections' and specimen samples within a case, display unit or presented in small series.

Well today I have decided to revisit this idea but finally progress a bit further with it. Using some inspiration from Michael Mapes, I have been playing around with the layout within an art case I have acquired. The perspex needs replacing but the shelves are the perfect size for my bottles. I also found that The Range sell a pack of different sized bottles for £1 which is pretty cool.

I also have put in a few bits I already had like my petri dishes, test tubes and microscopic slides. The arrangement may need a bit of work yet and I may add more plastic sample bags and maybe some finger print samples but so far I am liking how this has progressed since my initial arrangement last night. I have already started to add some stuff to the bottle but I have just found loads I had in safe storage; I really have been meaning to do this for awhile and kept buying bottles to motivate myself! I also found some of my older samples like the eyelashes, skin and blood (although the blood has been damaged and will need redoing) and I also found a tooth!

This is my cabinet plan so far. I will be using more riske materials for this which may not be suitable for younger audiences but the idea is to present an accurate portrait of myself through what my body excretes and it isn't always pleasant. This is a rough guide for now but I may replace some parts with some microscopy images, scanned images and finger print samples; or with other excretions as I have them (Especially if New Year is as good as last year! >_>)

Specimen Research

I have neglected this project for too long and want to re-kindle it. So I am starting with some short artist research for inspiration.
Particularly on the subject of SPECIMENS


Start off with long term favourite Michael Mapes:

Michael’s boxes feature thousands of individual specimens of dissected photographs and biographical DNA like hair, finger nails, scent, eye lashes, fingerprints, food, botanical elements, fabric swatches, makeup, dirt, handwriting samples and breath.

This content is contained within plastic bags, magnifying boxes, glass vials, gelatin capsules, petri dishes, and on thousands of insect pins. The creative use of scientific materials, which is much easier than actual science or conventional artistic media, provides the metaphorical dimension.







Specimen by Maggie Leininger. textiles inspired by petri dish colonies, chromosomes, and human cells.


Homage to Damien Hirst - sausages in art Karsten Wegener, Silke Baltruschat and Raik Holst

Laura Katherine McMillan. Size: 9 pieces, 5.5”x 5.5” Medium: Machine and Hand Embroidery in Petri Dishes Year Made: 2010 Cell Series "


Klari Reis- reflective epoxy polymer.

Artworks by Anna Dumitriu


Nina Katchadourian
This artist has also done a series fixing spider webs with red string which I discovered many years back during my first year of Uni.

Emily McIntosh

Neural Circuitry 2013

etched glass, timber stand

Text tube book by Kay Hines

Display Examples

Display cases

Reliquaries

By colour

18th century 'Vampyr' anatomical research case. Owned by the physician and naturalist Francis Gerber.



En masse

Recycling


watercolour, glue, salt

Jars

Marker pen and coffee filter

drawer unit