Anna Lucas: Demonstration 50.15
In October 2007, Anna Lucas was awarded a Visiting Fellowship in Art and Biomedical Science in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford. Out of this residency came a film called Demonstration 50.15, which offers up a portrait of the University’s anatomy laboratory and follows the repetitive daily activities of the mortuary technician as he respectfully embalms and prepares bodies for medical students.
During the course of her residency Lucas also made drawings in response to movies that relate to the subject of sensory enhancement, deprivation and perception, focusing on Werner Herzog’s film Land of Silence and Darkness. This led to a limited edition book called Blind Movies, which featured an essay by writer and lecturer in art and film theory Silke Panse, and a four-day event of talk and action connecting movies, blindness, drawing, perception and neuroscience.
Commissioned by the Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art in collaboration with the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford and supported by funding from Arts Council England and the Wellcome Trust.