HONOURS THESIS

GRADUATION EXHIBITION, THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ART

(A SELECTION OF WORKS)

This thesis work focuses on the blurred boundary of the body that may render a 'Tumour' or 'growth' both part of the body, while simultaneously separate from the body, like an external object. There is an uncertainty of ownership when one considers that a tumour is made up of ones 'own' malfunctioning cells and that the tumour may be quite integrated with the internal body, but equally a tumour seems foreign and may need to be removed. Is this thing yours, is it you?


Soma: Sarcoma, 2009

Silicone, welded steel, various fabric, thread and oil paint. 

120 x 190 x 95 cm

Photo Credit: Ben Smith Whatley

Soma: Sarcoma, 2009 (detail)

Silicone, welded steel, various fabric, thread and oil paint. 

120 x 190 x 95 cm

Photo Credit: Ben Smith Whatley


Soma: Sarcoma (installation shot), 2009

Silicone, welded steel, various fabric, thread and oil paint. 

120 x 190 x 95 cm

Hold To....Hold Out, 2009 (detail)

Silicone, organza fabric, thread and oil paint.

72 x 46 x 25 cm

Hold to Sever, 2009

Silicone, tracing paper, oil paint and thread.

Dimensions Variable

Hold To....Hold Out, 2009 (detail)

Silicone, organza fabric, thread and oil paint.

72 x 46 x 25 cm

Drawings for Left: Hold To Sever (From Analysis Series), 2009 & Right: Hold To... Hold Out, 2009

Gouache and watercolour pencil on paper.

57 x 28 cm


RELATED READING

Schwenger, P., The Tears of Things: Melancholy and Physical Objects. U.S.A Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2006.

Kristeva, J., The Powers of Horror. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.

Welton, Donn, Body and Flesh: A philosophical Reader. Blackwell Publishers: USA, 1998.

Fraser, M & Greco, M, The Body: A Reader. Routledge Student Readers: New York, 2008.

Ehrenreich, Barbara, Welcome To Cancerland. Harper’s Magazine. November (2001).

Berman, Jules J., Neoplasms Principles of Development and Diversity. Jones and Bartlett: USA, 2008

Lock, Margaret, Cultivating the Body: Anthropology and Epistemologies of Bodily Practice and Knowledge, Annual Reviews Inc, Australia, 1993.

Dalsgaard Reventlow, S, Hvas, L, Malterud, Kristi, Making the invisible body Visible. Bone Scans, Osteoporosis and Women’s Bodily Experiences. Copenhagen Denmark: Elsevier, 2005.

Scheper-Hughes. N and M.Lock. M, The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology.

© Michelle Day. All Rights Reserved. Images may not be used without permission of the artist.