christine borland

Exhibition open to the public on
Fridays 2-7pm,
Saturdays 9am-noon
18th May - 6th July 2002
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Keppel Street,
London WC1E 7HT

 

 

 

 
 
 
This Being You Must Create (Spy in the Anatomy Museum)
Christine Borland
1997
80 laminated cibachrome prints on perspex 15.25 x 20.32 cm

Christine Borland’s use of epidemiological procedures has resulted in sustained collaborations and interventions in medical institutions such as the Medical Research Council’s Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at Glasgow University. Borland's practice examines 'expertise'; this draws her into critical relationships with the history of medicine or its applications as explored in the example of eugenics and L'Homme Double 1997, as well as analysis of contemporary practice within institutions of medical research.

For Hygiene she presents This Being You Must Create (Spy in the Anatomy Museum) for the first time in the UK. This is an installation of eighty small images, developed from slides taken with a spy camera while pretending to draw in the Anatomy Museum of Montpellier in 1997. The work refers to anatomy and natural history collections, and the 'wunderkamers' so popular in the 19th century. The definition of types is explored through this collection of norms and monstrosities and suggests a precursor to the contemporary enthusiasm for identifying type through genetic monitoring.

Borland has shown extensively both in the UK and abroad. In 1997 she was short-listed for the Turner Prize. She has had solo exhibitions at the Lisson Gallery during 1997 and 2001, and at the Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, USA in 2000. In 2000 she showed Progressive Disorder as part of Spectacular Bodies at the Hayward Gallery, London.





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