Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Northumbria at Newcastle
Cast from Nature
Cast From Nature was a production residency and one-person exhibition at Glasgow Sculpture Studios (2010-11), and re-visioned for Camden Arts Centre, London (2011).
This multi-disciplinary project made visible the large-scale mold-making and recasting of an original plaster 19th Century écorché, retrieved from the basement of the University of Edinburgh’s Anatomy Department. The mold-making and recasting process was made accessible over a four-month period and relayed through live-feed from the casting-room into a specially constructed tiered arena.
This output developed Borland’s research into the role of aesthetics within medical environments. Through practice-based research it compared contemporary remote and simulated learning techniques with the dramatic features inherent within 19th Century medical education, whose subjects were often referenced as ancient or classical art forms. The project allowed medical students, professionals and the public, to engage with and explore the loss of individual identity within the institutional framework of Medicine.
A detailed dissemination strategy focused on the performative aspects of the body’s presentation in both medical and cultural contexts, all held in the specially constructed arena (including Glasgow University Schools, the Henry Moore Institute, Medical Humanities, Glasgow). At Camden Arts Centre the artwork was introduced within an international artist’s forum, and in demonstrations of simulated medical techniques (Imperial College, London). A commissioned short film and interview, which documents the installation process, is available on VIMEO. The output has been presented in keynotes at international conferences (Whitechapel Gallery, London and UCL, London). It has led to Borland’s membership of the international advisory board for the ‘Edinburgh Companion to Critical Medical Humanities’. Borland's subsequent film work NoBodies: Cast From Nature was developed focusing on the researcher's casting process (funded by an Royal Scottish Academy Award 2011).
