MEMORY OF A BRAIN MALFORMATION
SCULPTURE, 2006
KATHARINE DOWSON (UK)
Science and technology, natural organisms and the human body in all its forms inspire Katharine Dowson. Collaborating with scientists and medics on different projects allows her to explore her interest and make work that is a visual question to the research she sees. She uses glass as not only a metaphor for the fragility of life but also a major component in scientific discovery, from test tubes to lenses, revealing the microcosmic and macrocosmic universe and their visual similarities.
Memory of a Brain Malformation is a laser etching in glass of a brain tumour belonging to the artist’s cousin. The malformation was successfully lasered out of her brain, and the artist has used a laser to recreate it. The images of the delicate vein scaffold that feeds the brain tissues are reminiscent of a tree, supporting a nest within the branches. It is a part of the organism but alien at the same time, like a parasitic ecosystem. The life-size lasered glass tumour and veins are delicate and ephemeral, like a memory and the echo of the real thing.
BIO:
Katharine Dowson studied at Camberwell School of Art and the Royal College of Art. She is represented in numerous collections including the Wellcome Trust and the Arts Council Collection. Her work has been bought by Charles Saatchi and included in Shark Infested Waters, Saatchi Collection of British Art in the 90’s. Katharine was commissioned to create work for the groundbreaking shows, Spectacular Bodies, A History of Anatomical Art from Leonardo to Now at Hayward Gallery in London and Head On: Art with the Brain in Mind at Science Museum London. Recently she was commissioned for Art of Saving a Life by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where they asked thirty artists worldwide to create a work around the story of vaccines. Shows include Images of the Mind/The Mind in Images in Dresden and Brno; Brains: The Mind as Matter at the Wellcome Collection London and Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester; Project Daejeon 2014: The Brain in South Korea and Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics touring exhibition in America. Katharine is represented by GV Art London.