People have always been fascinated, driven, to seek ways to comprehend the workings of the human body. How does it all work? Where is the soul? Where resides emotion, thought? Artists, poets, philosophers have pondered this for centuries. Doctors and scientists have sought to map the mechanisms, machinery and inner workings of the universe of the body, to learn means to treat ailments and abnormalities. However, they too sought a road map to address answers to grand questions about our very being. How does life come to otherwise inert matter? How or why does it pass away?
The exhibition dissects death, measures mortality, exposes internal medicine and lingers upon our obsession with the macabre. The title pays homage to the classic 1918 publication, “Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body”, a staple of art school anatomy and life study drawing classes. Through life studies art students are encouraged to comprehend the mechanics of motion and the outward appearance by understanding the underlying relationships of skeletal structure to muscles to the organs and out to the enclosing layer of skin. Gray’s Anatomy revels in mystery and mysticism.
