As romantic moments go, when a woman first meets her husband-to-be is usually special. But who would have thought that when the cold and calculating science of medicine came together with the soft and emotional creative arts, an even more touching moment happens- science and the art fuse together.
“If a body were to be embalmed, John Hunter was sent for… if anything strange in nature occurred, the explanation of it came from him.”*
From one of the oldest anatomical collections in the world to the latest advances in minimal access surgery, the Hunterian Museum which takes its name from reveals 400 years of medical history, a series of events that reveals the connections between microscopy and medicine. It is the 'lens of life'.
Although it has hardly been advertised or reviewed, the exhibition has attracted hundreds of visitors fascinated by the subject. But remember this is a medical museum. You wouldn't expect to see art or artists here. But you would be wrong.
Artists use their creativity to reveal the world in new and sometimes unexpected ways. And that is exactly the point. They try to think outside the box. The Hunterian Museum allows them to do that.
It's a space for them to come and spend the day uninterrupted, sketching human body parts well-preserved in jars for hundreds of years. Being surrounded by thousands of life-sized body parts in jars of varying sizes takes a moment or two of getting used to on entering the museum.
In that jar, a human brain, unremarkable in this setting. Except it belongs to Babbage, the computer inventor. Without that brain we might still be adding sums with a chalk on slate.
Over there, a line of premature babies, from four-weeks-old to nearly full term, hundreds of years have passed but still peacefully at rest, beautiful, exceptional, elegant, unexpected, and mysterious.
Arts tells its own story mysteriously too.
Artist Klein Neason is a regular visitor in need of constant inspiration for his work. His work focuses on the physical world. One day he stumbled into the Hunterian, a museum dedicated to the art and science of anatomy and surgery, and he was hooked.
“It is amazing when my art meets science,” he said. "You have to understand Nature. You cannot build your artistic world from thin air. You have to love the anatomical and have a good and useful knowledge in anatomy."
Klein uses scientific principles to create mesmerizing works of art with inspiration. Like the sketch mused from the facial expressions of premature babies to the three-inch-long foot bone of a Chinese woman.
Klein Neason is not alone.
Several years ago artist Susanna Edwards happened to come upon a collection of Victorian microscopic slides in Hunterian Museum. Intrigued by the creativity and dexterity involved in making these delicate objects, she began to delve into the world of microscopy and that journey pushed her work to a new stage. The result is her stunning photography exhibition which explores microscopy as craft and technology, art and science. Also at the Hunterian museum.
* Jesse Foot, Life of John Hunter.
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