Statement
from the curators
Tony Fletcher and Pam Skelton
Why Hygiene?
Over the last three years we have been collaborating on an exhibition
programme at the School. We work respectively at the London School
of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Central Saint Martins College
of Art & Design, and have both been interested in what can come
out of the science-art interaction. So far this collaboration
has resulted in two student exhibitions Foreign Bodies
and Foreign Bodies 2001 held respectively in 2000 and
2001 at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the
selection of contemporary art commissions. These two shows both
followed the pattern of introducing the artists to the diversity
of work in the School, introducing them to some School researchers
and encouraging them to prepare site specific work in response to
their encounters. This they did with an impressive creativity and
variety, reflecting their divergent interests. For the next show
we decided to focus on a theme: Hygiene.
Hygiene has the appeal of being a word with many different meanings
to specialist and lay person alike, and it is also perhaps a bit
of an anachronism: for many it recalls a nineteenth century and
early twentieth view of public health and health promotion. Indeed,
because of the way the currency of the word has evolved the School
was, last year, reflecting on whether to drop Hygiene from its name
in favour of a more modern rebranding. The overwhelming view was
to retain the name, familiar to so many. We are very happy about
this, as there is a parallel between how the Hygiene
in The School of Hygiene represents a diversity of academic practice
and the diversity of readings suggested by the work of the artists
in this show.
Hygiene has been associated through the ages with regulating procedures
and practices concerned with cleanliness, purity, contamination
and dirt. To the Ancient Greeks, balance and moderation in all things
was hygienic and conducive to good health, and thus placated the
Goddess Hygieia, (who mounted on her chariot provides the logo for
the School). To the Sanitarians of the Nineteenth Century, hygiene
of body and mind protected from the physical and moral filth that
threatened to engulf industrialising Britain. To the founders of
the LSHTM, hygiene was the science of public health, the key weapon
to prevent infectious diseases that still killed so many at home
and abroad. In the worst sense, the word hygiene has in the twentieth
century been associated with eugenics and social Darwinism. Today's
scientists understand hygiene as the set of practices that prevent
infection, while today's consumers buy 'hygiene' products for reasons
more connected to status, convenience and aesthetics than fear of
infection.
Building the show
The work in this show explores the ambiguities surrounding the meanings
of hygiene. This extends beyond personal bodily cleanliness, disease
prevention, sewerage systems and other elements of Public Health,
to racial hygiene and more generally to cultural desires and taboos,
which can underpin notions of disgust, abjection and obsession.
Thus hygiene touches us in many ways, some, but not
all reassuring. We were reminded that a School of Hygiene is sensitive
to the boundaries between what is hygienic (or unhygienic).
Some images that refer in visual terms to that boundary might offend,
and we have had interesting discussions with the artists about irony,
censorship and cultural sensitivity. These tensions are reflected
in some of the works. LSHTM is after all a working building, concerned
with promoting good hygiene practice.
The artists we invited were those whose work we knew touched, however
tangentially, on one or other of these readings of hygiene.
In most cases they created new work especially for this site, responding
to the context in terms of architecture, the work history of the
School and people working here. This exhibition programme is an
unfolding dialogue. These artists are not representing
the work of the School, neither do we think they are mis-representing
it. Our intention is that people in the building for whom Hygiene
is just familiar as part of the name of the School may be prompted
to take something away by reflecting on the work of the show. Visitors
to the School and these web pages may also learn something of what
the School of Hygiene is up to.
The exhibition and catalogue
People who see the show and ask themselves What has that piece
got to do with hygiene?, may find something to help that question
on these web pages. We hope that people who see the web-site and
get an impression of the exhibition, will be inspired to visit if
they can. The exhibition is designed to inhabit this building, which
provides an unusual context to view and consider the sculptures,
paintings, films, photographs and installations. The Art Deco architecture,
the imposing white façade and somewhat austere interior,
provide a superb framework for these works, so we would encourage
those outside to make the effort to get to see the show if they
can.
The vision of the show benefited from others ideas and comments
both inside and outside the School and in particular we are grateful
for the insightful contributions and suggestions of: Val Curtis
(LSHTM), Polly Gould (CSM), Kelly Loughlin (LSHTM) and Shaheen Merali
(CSM).
Tony Fletcher & Pam Skelton
May 2002
Contact addresses:
tony.fletcher@lshtm.ac.uk
pamskelton2@aol.com
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updated 27.11.02 | site designed and maintained by Adrian
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