COMMUNIQUE DE PRESSE

Marilène Oliver Le corps transcendé exposition de sculptures exposition du 14 avril au 31 mai 2011 vernissage jeudi 14 avril à 18h signature du livre Le corps et son image 12h-14 et 18h-20h Hôpital, entrée principale entrée libre, tous les jours 8h-20h

Le corps transcendé

MARILENE OLIVER EXPOSITION DE SCULPTURES

PRESENTATION

Le corps transcendé Suite à la parution du livre Le corps et son image du Prof. Osman Ratib, les affaires culturelles présentent les fascinantes sculptures de l’artiste Marilène Oliver

Point commun entre un étonnant ouvrage de vulgarisation médicale et les magnifiques sculptures de l’artiste anglaise Marilène Oliver : l’image du corps ou plus précisément la visualisation de son intérieur le plus profond révélé dans ses plus intimes détails. L’invisible rendu visible par les nouvelles techniques d’imagerie pour l’avancement de la médecine et au service d’un art exquis.

Ces images étonnantes, qui révolutionnent le diagnostic médical, le traitement de la pathologie et la relation entre le médecin et son patient, en montrent presque trop pour le commun des mortels. Elles sont fascinantes mais aussi un peu effroyables lorsque l’on est directement concerné. Ces données techniques, purement médicales, Marilène Oliver les transforme pour nous donner à voir une autre vue de notre propre intérieur, elle nous invite à réfléchir sur notre condition et se questionne sur l’effet de médiation de la technologie dans nos relations et notre compréhension de « soi ». L’artiste réinvente le genre du portrait en fonction du savoir actuel, tel que Leonardo dévoilait dans de magnifiques dessins les entrailles humaines qu’il disséquait, Marilène Oliver expose les strates de notre organisme et révèle un corps transcendé. Par le biais d’une approche poétique et artistique, la distance permet de mieux comprendre ces images, leur impact, leur beauté intrinsèque. La belle n’est que l’autre visage de la bête, qu’il suffit d’apprivoiser.

Les sculptures de Marilène Oliver sont présentée à l’hôpital pour la première fois en Suisse ; nous avons sélectionnés quatre œuvres qui se situent exactement à la croisée des techniques d’imagerie développées Genève et d’une histoire de l’art revisitée avec une méthode et dans une forme résolument contemporaines.

Les Derviches Cette sculpture mobile représente Melanix, le pseudonyme un rien sci-fi du set de scans CT d’un corps humain en entier mis à disposition sur le site du logiciel de visualisation OsiriX et mets à profit l’outil « multiplanar » qui permet à l’utilisateur de fixer un axe sur le corps et de le visionner en tournant autour sur 360°. Une activité éminemment contemporaine selon l’artiste qui l’assimile aux recherches par mot-clé sur internet, aux visionnements panoramiques dans Second Life, ainsi qu’à nos régulières et rapides migrations aériennes. Chaque figure est identique pourtant toutes semblent distinctes car l’axe est décentré différemment pour chacune. L’image tournoie et virevolte dans la lumière, symbole de l’impermanence de notre corps.

La Grande Dame Fruit d’une longue collaboration avec le Prof. Francis Wells de Cambridge, œuvre majeure et exemplaire, Leonardo’s Great Lady extrapole en trois dimensions un fameux dessin du maître florentin. Cette grande dame du XVe siècle se révèle être une créature multiple et hybride… Réalisée âpres l’étude de dix corps, elle porte un cœur de bœuf, des ligaments bovins et des artères ombilicales de fœtus ! Toutes ces informations contenues dans le dessin original sont retranscrites sur les plaques d’acryliques et rendues visibles dans leur dimension physique. Pourtant la sculpture achevée, le corps flotte, vacille, dance et selon le point de vue sous lequel on l’observe, l’illusion qui lui donne corps la fait aussi disparaître.

La Figure Fatiguée Réalisée à partir du scan du corps de l’artiste, Exhausted Figure est un autoportrait. A ce titre, elle représente la grande fatigue que ressent cette jeune mère lorsqu’elle allaite son premier enfant depuis plusieurs mois. Toutes les informations physiologiques ont été effacées, comme si elles aussi avaient été drainées, l’artiste n’en conserve que la structure, les traces, autant de chemins de gravure qui capturent la lumière et rendent ce corps évanescent, pris dans la fragilité du repos.

Le Baiser Fixer pour l’éternité un moment d’intimité entre deux êtres. Par ce geste simple l’espace du scanner habituellement réservé à des observations cliniques est subverti en un espace intime propice à une rencontre romantique. Cette embrasse fait écho aux fameux baisers de Brancusi et de Klimt. De même que dans ces œuvres, une déformation se glisse dans la représentation du sujet, comme une sorte d’aliénation de la réalité ainsi condensée, fusionnée et qui se transformerait une autre réalité. Voici des œuvres sensibles et belles qui s’inscrivent parfaitement dans notre volonté de retisser des liens authentiques entre art et médecine.

Anne-Laure Oberson

INFOS PRATIQUES

LIEU D’EXPOSITION Hôpital, entrée principale, Site Cluse-Roseraie, rue Gabrielle-Perret-Gentil 4, 1205 Genève

VERNISSAGE Jeudi 14 avril 2011 de 18h à 20h Séances de signature de 12 à 14h et de 18h à 20h (livre disponible à l’achat sur place)

EXPOSITION du 14 avril au 31 mai 2011 Entrée libre, tous les jours 8h-20h

CONTACT Anne-Laure Oberson Affaires culturelles HUG ch. du Petit-Bel-Air 2 1225 Chêne-Bourg tél. 022 305 41 44 fax 022 305 56 10 [email protected] www.arthug.ch

INFORMATION Les œuvres sont prêtées par la galerie Beaux Arts London 22 Cork Street London W1S 3NA Tél. +44(0) 207 437 5799 fax +44(0) 207 437 5798 [email protected] www.beauxartslondon.co.uk Personne de contact: Nathalie Yue

IMAGES

Dervishes 2007 Impression par sublimation sur de l'organza de verre, acier, aluminium, système de suspension par sertissage et fil de pêche Chaque figure 220x50x30cm

Leonardo’s Great Lady 2006 Stylo et encre sur de l’acrylique 25x40x80cm

The Kiss 2004 Sérigraphie à l'encre d'or sur de l'acrylique 50x50x50cm

Exhausted Figure 2007 Acrylique transparent gravé et fil de pêche 167x50x30cm

LE LIVRE

Ratib Osman, Le corps et son image, Lausanne : Éditions Favre, 2011. Chf 58.- ISBN 978-2-8289-1144-7

Dans Le corps et son image, un ouvrage magnifiquement illustré et écrit de façon claire et accessible à tous, Osman Ratib, retrace l’évolution formidable des techniques d’imagerie médicale, qui, ces dernières années, a changé fondamentalement la pratique de la médecine moderne. Des scanners de plus en plus performants permettent d’explorer le corps humain dans tous ses détails. Par ailleurs, les performances de ces techniques d’imagerie sont renforcées par de nouveaux outils informatiques de visualisation et de navigation en trois dimensions.

A partir des images obtenues des scanners (CT, ultrasonographie, IRM ou PET), il est ainsi possible aujourd’hui, grâce à ces nouvelles techniques d’imagerie 3D, de reconstituer les organes et les structures internes du corps, en couleur et avec des degrés de transparence pour chaque différent niveau de tissus, avec un résultat d’un réalisme jamais atteint auparavant.

Le Professeur Osman Ratib, chef du département d’imagerie et des sciences de l’information médicale aux HUG, le radiologue Antoine Rosset et l’informaticien Joris Heuberger ont conçu le logiciel OsiriX,( http://www.osirix-viewer.com/ ) un logiciel d'imagerie médicale disponible sous licence GPL qui permet de traiter les données acquises par l'intermédiaire d'appareils médicaux tels que l'IRM ou le scanner. A partir des milliers de coupes réalisées par un simple scanner noir-blanc, OsiriX reconstitue le corps en 3D et en couleur, il crée une quatrième dimension et même une cinquième : «En 4D, on ajoute le temps. La vitesse d’acquisition des images est telle qu’elle permet d’observer des processus comme les contractions du cœur, explique le médecin Osman Ratib. Et en 5D: grâce au développement des techniques d’imagerie utilisant des radiotraceurs, on ajoute le métabolisme.»

Le Professeur Osman Ratib dédicacera son livre lors de deux séances de signature le jeudi 14 avril entre 12h et 14h et de 18h à 20h.

BIOGRAPHIE

Marilène Oliver 1977 Born in UK

1996-1999 Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design B A (Hons) in Fine Art, Printmaking and Photo media 1999-2001 Royal College of Art, London M A (RCA) in Fine Art Printmaking 2000 Artist in Residence, Takumi Studio, Gifu, Japan 2003-2005 Fine Art Digital Co-ordinator, Royal College of Art, London 2003 Visiting Lecturer, Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design, London 2004 Visiting Lecturer, Brighton University 2005 Visiting Lecturer, The Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford University 2005 Visiting Lecturer, Royal Academy, London 2006 Visiting Lecturer, Royal College of Art, London 2009 MPhil, Royal College of Art

Solo Exhibitions 2010 Carne Vale, Beaux Arts, London 2008 Digital Subjects/Digital Objects, Riverhouse Arts Centre, Walton-on-Thames Dervishes, Herrmann and Wagner, Berlin, Germany 2007 Le Grand Jeu, Beaux Arts, London 2006 Selected Works, The Hospital, Covent Garden, London Family Portrait, Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff When Two Worlds Collide, Beaux Arts, London 2004 Intimate Distances, SPHN Galerie, Berlin, Germany 2004 Intimate Distances, Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham 2003 Intimate Distances Beaux Arts, London

Group Exhibitions 1998 22 Printmakers, Standpoint Gallery, London 1999 Screensavers, Lauderdale House, Archway, London 1999 Now Vision, Victoria and Albert museum, London 2000 Divine Expiration, Takumi Studio, Gifu City, Japan 2001 Never Look Here, Foyles Gallery, London. 2002 ART2002, Beaux Arts, London 2002 Beaux Arts, London 2004 Print Open, Invited artist, RWA, Bristol 2004 Summer Exhibition, The Royal Society, London 2004 Gods Becoming Men, Frissarius Museum, Athens, Greece 2004 Beaux Arts, London 2004 The Magic Inside, The Science Museum, London 2004 Technique, Royal College of Art 2005 Art 2005, Islington Design Centre 2005 Royal Academy Summer Show, London 2005 Young Masters, Art Fortnight, London 2005 Summer 2005, Beaux Arts, London MiniArttextil 2005, Como, Italy Oliver & Perucchetti, Beaux Arts, London 2006 Acts, Kulturhof Flachsgasse, Speyer, Germany Royal Academy Summer Show, London Summer 2006, Beaux Arts, London Kunst-Körperlich Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche, Osnabrück, Germany Medicine and Art, Kunst Museum Ahlen, Germany Universal Leonardo, Museum of the History of Science, Oxford 2007 Sculpture Now, Hermann and Wagner, Berlin Art 2007, Islington Design Centre Seen and Unseen, The Hub, Sleaford Productive Matter, Café Gallery, Southwark Interim Exhibition, Royal College of Art, London Through the Looking Glass, Building 1000, London Have A Good Nose, Kunstverein Bad Salzdetfurth E.V. Bodenburg, Germany Diagnose Art, Kunstspreice Wurzburg, Wurzburg, Germany Royal Academy Summer Show, London Summer 2007, Beaux Arts, London 2008 Summer 2008, Beaux Arts, London 2008 East Wing Collection 8, Courtauld Institute of Art, London 2009 The Space Between, The Crypt, St Pancras, London 2009 RCA Degree Show, Royal College of Art, London 2009 Print Open (invited artists), RWA, Bristol 2009 Summer 2009, Beaux Arts, London 2010 Summer 2010, Beaux Arts, London

Public Collections The Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham Fundación Sorigué, Lleida, Spain Suttie Centre, Aberdeen Victoria & Albert Museum, London The Wellcome Trust, London

Bibliography 2001 The Times, page 5, 30th May Friday Review, The Independent, 1st June Bizarre Magazine, August Printmaking Today, page 5, Autumn 2002 Art Review, December / January Art Tomorrow, Edward Lucie-Smith, Vilo International, October 2003 Jeanette Winterson, Catalogue Essay, Beaux Arts The Art Newspaper, no.139, September Wallpaper, page 245, October Printmaking Today, page 21, Autumn 2004 Familienfotos aus dem Kernspin-Tomografen ART-Das Kunstmagazin Intimate Distances Exhibition Guide, Kunsttermine, page 30, January Körperscheiben, taz Berlin, 21st January Ungewöhnliches Abbild einer Familie (M. Lintl), Neues Deutschland, 23rd January Erkundungen an verschlossenen Orten Berliner Zeitung, Kulturkalender, Blick unter die Haut Berlin Live, Berliner Morgenpost, page 23, 15th January Geisterfamilie (R. Preuß), Der Tagesspiegel, Ticket No. 3, page 10, 15th January Exhibition Guide artery Berlin – Berlin Gallery Guide, January/February Intimate Distances The Exberliner, No.12, page 102, January Intimate Distances Prinz magazine, February Marilène Oliver: (Skulpturen) Highlights Kunst, tip Berlin page 102, February Kunstforum International, page 230, February Die Welt, 13th February Marilène Oliver: Intimate Distances (R: Berg), Kunstforum International, vol. 169, page 230-231, March/April Marilène Oliver: (Skulpturen) tip Berlin, March Marilène Oliver: (Skulpturen) tip Berlin, April Printmaking Today, page 10/11, Summer Metro, Metro Life, page 17, 27th July Evening Post, page 21 2nd September, page 3, 30th July The Independent, The Information page 13, 24th July The Guardian, The Guide, 21st August Leonardo Magazine, Issue 37:5, Artist Statement, Autumn 2005 Daily Telegraph, page 19, 1st June Evening Standard, page 18, 20th June Eine Rekonstruktion des menschlichen Körpers (J. Schindelbeck), Speyerer Morgenpost, 10th October Akt-Ein Spiegel persönlicher Wahrnehmung (S. Mertel), Die Rheinpfalz 2006 Michael Symmons Roberts, Catalogue Introduction, Beaux Arts Prints Now by Gill Saunders & Rosie Miles, V&A Publication, Spring Kunst Körperlich, Körper Künstlich, Osnabrück 2007 Diagnosis [Art] Contemporary Art Reflecting Medicine Wienand research rca Royal College of Art Rising Stars of the contemporary art world The Times, 28th June Amelia Jones, Catalogue Essay, Beaux Arts

Awards, Prizes & Commissions 1999 Now Vision, Cannon Photography Prize 2001 Alf Dunn Prize 2001 Printmaking Today Prize 2004 Sound response by Max Richter to Intimate Distances 2005 Art meets Science Award, Highly Commended 2007 Matthew Hay Commission, The Suttie Centre, Aberdeen University 2007 The London Original Print Fair Prize, Royal Academy of Art Summer Exhibition

Broadcasts, Talks and presentations 2004 FAB (Fernsehen aus Berlin) Kultur-Check, Ausstellungsbeitrag, 22nd January 2004 RBB Kulturradio (M. Groschupf), 3:15pm, 28th January 2006 Putting the bits and pieces back together again, RSA, 23rd November 2006 The Great Lady. Discussion with Francis Wells, Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, 31st October 2007 Resurrecting the Digitised Body: The use of the ‘Scanned In’ body for making artworks. Presentation at Eva, London, 13th July 2007 Leonardo’s Great Lady. Discussion with Marilène Oliver and Francis Wells, presented by Geoff Watts on Leading Edge, Radio 4, 26th July .

ARTICLE Resurrecting Leonardo's Great Lady: A Collaboration Marilène Oliver Francis Wells

Leonardo, Volume 41, Number 5, October 2008, pp. 500-505 (Article)

Published by The MIT Press

For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/len/summary/v041/41.5.oliver.html

Access Provided by Universite de Geneve at 03/22/11 12:56PM GMT

Resurrecting Leonardo’s Great Lady: A Collaboration

ABSTRACT

Marilène Oliver Sculptor Marilène Oliver and cardiothoracic surgeon Francis LEONARDO DA VINCI CELEBRATING and Francis Wells Wells collaborated to decon- struct Leonardo da Vinci’s draw- ing The Great Lady in order to reconstruct it as a three- dimensional sculpture. Employ- ing lessons learned from contemporary radiology, they Report by Francis Wells, Surgeon REPORT BY MARILÈNE simulated cross sections of OLIVER, ARTIST The Great Lady that were drawn It is the springtime of 1977, and I fi nd myself walking along in pen and ink onto a stack of Piccadilly, in front of Burlington House, the home of the In July 2006 I was introduced via acrylic sheets. Here Oliver and Wells give independent accounts Royal Academy of Art. I have a break in my preparations for e-mail to Francis Wells, a cardiac surgeon of the project, not only shar- the rigorous primary examinations to become a Fellow of the working in Cambridge, U.K. I was keen ing how their relationship with Royal College of Surgeons in England, which preparations to follow up this introduction, as I had Leonardo’s drawing evolved over included a comprehensive knowledge of anatomy. The sign been trying to fi nd a research partner the course of the project but on the railings in front of Burlington House calls out to pass- for a project about magnetic resonance also exposing the differences in approach by the scientist ersby to come in and be amazed by the anatomical drawings of cardiac motion artifacts and it seemed, and the artist to a science-art Leonardo da Vinci from the Royal Collection. Other than two at last, that I had a possible lead. I soon project. showings in the United States, this was the fi rst time that most arranged to meet Wells at his offi ce. The of those beautiful drawings had been shown to the public. night before our fi rst meeting I was work- Brimming with Latin names for the structures within the ing on the computer, and as light relief body and mind bursting with the spatial relationships of the from the endless plotting of coordinates that my project at the time organs therein, I was intrigued to see what a genius of the art required, I decided to Google “Francis Wells cardiac surgeon.” I expected world at the cusp of the Cinquecento had to offer. Would it to be directed to National Health Service pages, medical journals and be a pastiche of medieval and Galenic ideas, or had this giant other impenetrable technical medical information. To my surprise and of the Renaissance achieved something special in the secret delight, however, the links I clicked on led me not to medical journals but world of the body in the midst of the panoply of his other to an abundance of collaborations with artists and, even better, pages works? Entering the private rooms of this great house, I was linking him to Leonardo da Vinci: Francis Wells was also an expert on full of excitement and nervous energy. Leonardo’s anatomical drawings. My mind wandered back to times when, Before deciding to train in medicine, I had aspired to a as a student, if I had an hour or so to spare I would go to the library life in the arts. Our wonderful art master had mesmerized us and sit quietly with a copy of Leonardo’s notebooks. I loved the powerful with the mythology that surrounded Leonardo’s mirror writ- fi gures, which proudly and forcefully embodied their fl ayed and dissected ing, and had waxed lyrical about sfumato, chiaroscuro and cadavers. I loved the embryos: his curled-up little balls of life. I loved the perspectival drawing. Suddenly and unexpectedly I was to be sensitivity of the line, the faded sepia tones and above all the blocks of in close proximity to some of the treasures produced by his bizarre code-like script on every spare inch of creased paper. I loved hand. Leonardo’s drawings. Entering the fi rst room, I was confronted with two pen-and- Our meeting went very well; I showed Francis (Frank) my work and ink drawings with wash and black chalk. The fi rst one is now explained my ideas for making sculptures using MR cardiac motion arti- appreciated as likely the fi rst of his surviving anatomical study fact data. He seemed genuinely very excited and promised to put me in drawings. Probably completed in the early 1480s while Leo- touch with the right people. I was thrilled that I was fi nally going to get my nardo was in his early 30s, it predominantly contains a Galenic heartbeat project off the ground. Post-“pitch,” we relaxed into a conversa- infl uence. My excitement was tempered by a slight sense of dis- tion about Leonardo da Vinci and Frank’s relationship to Leonardo’s work. appointment. However, the next drawing, signifi cantly larger It transpired that Frank had devised a new style of performing cardiac than the fi rst, was of a different world. It was bursting with valve repair from looking at Leonardo’s drawings. My intimate library easily recognizable contemporary anatomical imagery and cor- sessions were somewhat upstaged. Frank then went on to show and talk rect spatial relationships. This was my fi rst direct viewing of me through some facsimiles of Leonardo’s drawings that he happened what has become commonly referred to as The Great Lady! to have on his coffee table. Before long we came to Windsor 12281r, As I progressed through the exhibition I became transfi xed which I later found is sometimes termed The Great Lady by academics. by the beauty and the accuracy of the detail of so many of the This drawing was so complete—also, it was, in radiology terms, a “full drawings. It was for me the beginning of a lifetime of interest body” (in radiology a “full body” scan excludes the top of the head and the

Francis Wells (surgeon), Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, CB3 8RE, U.K. E-mail: Marilène Oliver (artist, researcher), 249 Weedington Road, London NW5 4PR, U.K. . E-mail: .

Article Frontispiece. Marilène Oliver and Francis Wells, Leonardo’s Great Lady, sculpture, pen and ink on acrylic, 25 × 40 × 80 cm, 2006. (© Marilène Oliver and Francis Wells)

©2008 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 500–505, 2008 501 in these wonderful achievements, never published as a corpus legs). It contained so much information: I saw complex systems of tubes of anatomy and yet proclaiming insights of relevance today. and pipes leading from one organ or swelling to another. As I continued This wonderful discovery became an inspiration for me to looking, more features revealed themselves. Kidneys were tucked behind read and learn as much as I could about the work of this Re- the spleen and gall bladder; veins and arteries crisscrossed and disap- naissance giant. Sixteen years later, having devoured all of the peared into the perspectival shadows. It reminded me of Canary Wharf standard works on Leonardo, I summoned up courage to ap- or Kyoto Station—amazing architectural structures whose staircases and proach the Royal Library in Windsor castle to enquire after escalators soar back, forth, up and down. the possibility of examining the drawings fi rst hand. To my “When I saw your sculpture at the Royal Academy I thought it would delight and amazement an invitation came to spend a day in be great to do the same thing with this drawing,” Frank said. Frank was the library with these wonderful manuscripts. Seeing them in referring to a sculpture called Sophie (Fig. 2). Sophie is a sculpture made CELEBRATING LEONARDO DA VINCI CELEBRATING my own hands was a spine-tingling experience, enhanced to up of 90 axial (cross-section) magnetic resonance imaging scans taken a state of intoxication by the fact that it was a snowy February at 20-mm intervals that I had printed onto sheets of clear acrylic [1]. day. Sitting in the watery half-light of winter, illuminated by the The printed sheets were then stacked to give the illusion of a ghostly warm glow of the artifi cial lighting, made the whole experience hovering fi gure. unforgettable. I chuckled to myself. “Impossible,” I thought. “My sculptures are made A few years later I was approached by a television company up of MRI or CT scans. I need scans to make a sculpture. . . . Although I to ask if I would be interested in helping them with a series of could perhaps manipulate sets of scans I have to fi t the drawing.” programs that they were making on Leonardo and his many endeavors; a discussion of the relevance of his anatomical work to the modern world of surgery was to be my brief. Through Fig. 2. Marilène Oliver, Sophie, sculpture made from MRI scans this my name became known to a group of Leonardo experts screen-printed onto sheets of clear acrylic, 192 × 70 × 50cm, 2003. (© Marilène Oliver) who had assembled their various talents under the auspices of the title the Universal Leonardo Project. This eclectic group of art historians were in the process of the novel organization of a series of international exhibitions on Leonardo covering everything from scientifi c examinations of his major paintings to a detailed examination of Leonardo’s thinking-on-paper.

Fig. 1. Stages of Wells’s mitral valve repair operation. (© Francis Wells)

502 Oliver and Wells, Resurrecting Leonardo’s Great Lady CELEBRATING LEONARDO DA VINCI CELEBRATING

Fig. 3. 3D visualization of the cross-sections of Leonardo’s The Great Lady, with shadows. (© Marilène Oliver and Francis Wells)

As part of the planning for their exhibitions, the Universal A challenge had imposed itself. How would The Great Lady look through Leonardo group invited me to give a lecture, which was where the eyes of radiology? Was there enough information in the drawing to I fi rst met Martin Kemp, whose seminal written works had imagine how a set of axial scans would have looked had she been MRI- or largely informed me about the life and works of Leonardo. As CT-scanned? our friendship developed, other projects ensued, and through I started by scanning in a reproduction of The Great Lady and ex- them I met Mori Gharib, professor of bioengineering at Cali- perimenting with contrast values to see if there was anything hiding in fornia Institute of Technology. Gharib had been working with the darks that changing the tonal range might reveal. Next I resized the a reproduction of a model that was fi rst proposed and probably drawing to be as near life size as possible by measuring the width of my built by Leonardo to demonstrate the true closing method of neck on my MRI scan and then measuring the width of The Great Lady’s the aortic valve of the heart. During our discussions, we ex- neck. I scaled The Great Lady so that her neck became as wide as mine, plored the idea of minimal energy surfaces, which emanated giving her a torso 80 cm tall. from other ideas of Leonardo. The application of this theory, I wondered how she died. Did a pair of hands grasp her neck and suf- along with the application of logic in the style used by Leo- focate her? What was her last breath like? Was it a sigh, a moan, a scream? nardo in his notebooks, led me to rethink the surgical methods I later learned that the question I should have asked was not how she died I was using to repair faulty mitral valves within the heart (Fig. but how they died. In his notes for The Great Lady, Leonardo wrote, 1). This approach gave rise to a paradigm shift in my surgical And you, who say that it would be better to watch an anatomist at work than approach to the problem, the application of which, to my eyes see these drawings, you would be right, if it were possible to observe all things at least (it is also gathering momentum internationally), has in a single fi gure, in which you, with all your cleverness, will not see nor obtain given rise to a signifi cant improvement in the function of the knowledge of more than a few veins, to obtain true and perfect knowledge of repaired valves over more traditional solutions. which I have dissected more than ten bodies, destroying all other members, and removing every minutest particles of fl esh by which those veins were Fast-forward to the 1990s; now established as a cardiotho- surrounded, without causing them to bleed, excepting the insensible bleeding racic surgeon, I had maintained my interest in the arts and of the capillary veins [2]. had begun to establish a series of artist-in-residence programs, initially funded by the Arts Council and in conjunction with When I read the translation of these notes my appetite to complete Wysing Arts in Bourne, near Cambridge. Andrew Hunter, cu- this work increased. I would make sure that the sculpture would be lit to rator at Wysing Arts, passed my e-mail address onto Marilène cast 10 shadows: One for each of the women (Fig. 3). Oliver, an artist whose MRI sculptures I had seen at the Royal I divided the drawing into 80 horizontal sections (Fig. 4). Then, on a new Academy the summer before. We met to discuss collaboration. layer of my fi le, I placed a little marker where my horizontal lines crossed I had long been intrigued by the idea of a 3D representation Leonardo’s drawing. There were so many lines that I had to reduce the of The Great Lady. Enthusiasm for this idea as a project had size of my markers many times, because as I traveled down the drawing further been fi red on seeing a reconstruction of her in the there were more and more points to mark, and they were so close to- recent exhibition on Leonardo in Florence curated by Paolo gether that my markers started to overlap each other. Once I had fi nished Galuzzi and by discussion with Martin Kemp. line 80 I rejoiced that I had all my important points. I had my x (height) and Marilène came to our hospital to meet and to have the op- y (width) planes. Now I needed to fi gure out the z (depth). portunity of seeing the human heart in action in the operating Although I had spent the previous 5 years working with radiology scans, theater. I was immediately drawn to her enthusiasm and can-do looking at Leonardo’s drawing shook my anatomical confi dence. I knew attitude to making such a project work. Ideas were discussed the kidneys and the heart but I was not 100%, fi nal-answer sure about and plans drawn up to make The Great Lady come to life in the other stuff. I invested in a copy of Gray’s Anatomy and dug out my three dimensions. CD of the Visible Human Project. That, combined with the sets of my MRI Once Marilène had redrawn Leonardo’s image and placed scans of my mum, sister and self for my Family Portrait project, would the internal structures in a 2D plane within her computer pro- help me fi nd the z values I was looking for.

Oliver and Wells, Resurrecting Leonardo’s Great Lady 503 CELEBRATING LEONARDO DA VINCI CELEBRATING

Fig. 4. (left) Oliver’s working drawing for Leonardo’s The Great Lady, showing the drawing divided into 80 horizontal sections. (right) A 3D visualization of the simulated cross-sections through Leonardo’s drawing. (© Marilène Oliver)

gram, we met again to tease out the structures into their 3D It was not long until I had to go back to Cambridge for help from Frank. relationships. There were things in Leonardo’s drawing that I could not fi nd in any of This was a learning process for both of us. We had to look into my resources. Leonardo’s wonderful drawing more deeply and closely than I “It is an ox heart!” he exclaimed. had ever done before. The result was a realization of just how “They must be bovine uterine ligaments! I’ll call Dad, who used to much he had achieved by the time of this drawing but more slaughter cows, and fi nd out,” he said triumphantly before going to leave importantly some of the secrets within. a very bizarre message on his father’s answer phone. “They can only be As we scrutinized the detail of the drawing’s elements we fetal umbilical arteries, he was doing it all at the same time you know.” began to realize that it was not simply a representation of Leo- The Great Lady was not only a multiple human but also a hybrid. She nardo’s perceptions of the internal anatomy of a woman. It has an ox heart, bovine uterine ligaments and fetal umbilical arteries was much more and in some measure much less: more, in that and veins. Could she be more “now”? She is 10 bodies in one—she has this was not simply human anatomy; less in that, as an ana- multiple selves. Her body could have been the body of a mother, a wife, a tomical statement of the internal architecture of a woman, it baker, a teacher, a scientist, an artist. Frank says that this is a “summary is incomplete. This drawing is an amalgam of human, bovine drawing,” that it brings together the knowledge Leonardo acquired from and fetal anatomy. As we examined the detail very carefully, the multiple dissections and that he must have been dissecting many different composite nature of the drawing became apparent. The need cadavers at the same time. Perhaps he never dissected a human heart to try to understand each and every mark on the paper led and assumed it was the same as a bovine heart. Dissection is a messy us to appreciate more completely what was therein. By using business, Frank told me, and was even messier in those days. He could contemporary anatomical knowledge and referring to other have confused other ligaments for those he had seen in a cow. Umbilical Leonardo drawings, we could begin to make sense of the many arteries and veins are still present in the adult, said Frank, but they are curvilinear lines in the pelvis. The umbilical vessels were ac- simply wizened away. I said that this all seemed a bit too coincidental curately reproduced from other studies of Leonardo, such as for me. Leonardo, who was not just an artist but an engineer, made those in RL 19101v and RL 19060r. From this we were able to “mistakes” that are actually design improvements; much better to have work out the nature of the convergence of the curved lines to the heart of an ox than of a woman, given how much more blood it could the left-hand side of the great vessels in the abdomen. This was pump. Uterine ligaments would be quite an asset, as they would allow a the confl uence of the fetal and the adult circulation. Other woman to bear more children. Umbilical arteries and veins carry oxygen faint but deliberate circular concentric lines in the pelvis may and nutrients to the fetus and then carry away its waste. A posthuman have been meant to represent the bladder overlying the cervix cyborg dream—no need to waste time eating, drinking, urinating and and the uterus. defecating: just plug yourself in. Stelarc would approve. I had looked at The Great Lady many times over the previous Frank helped me calculate my z axis. I had my dots, and now all that 30 years, but through this close interrogation of the drawing I was left was to join them up with the correct curves. It was tempting to began to see things that were completely new to me. We were nudge the point I had originally plotted a little bit over—Leonardo had truly looking closely and seeing anew. The many almost over- put the kidneys too far apart, and the liver was a bit small. It was hard to lapping lines in the original drawing took on completely new get things to fi t. When it came to the reproductive system, I often felt as

504 Oliver and Wells, Resurrecting Leonardo’s Great Lady CELEBRATING LEONARDO DA VINCI CELEBRATING

Fig. 5. A working drawing for the sculpture, showing all the axial planes from above. (© Marilène Oliver and Francis Wells) meaning when they were teased out in three dimensions. It though I were trying to untangle a ball of string. It was not always clear was an exhilarating and informative process. Working closely what came in front of what. To add to the confusion, there were creases together, the artist and the surgeon/anatomist were able to in the drawing that in a reproduction could be mistaken for a drawn line produce new insights into the understanding of an anatomical and vice versa. Now that Frank had told me that the Lady had an ox heart, masterpiece almost exactly 500 years after its making. I was happy to interpret anything as an intervention. I spent two days It was then some months until I was able to see the com- calculating the profi les of a vertical paper crease, convinced it was an pleted sculpture (Article Frontispiece). I approached it with anatomical feature that connected the heart to the umbilicus. Sometimes a little anxiety: Had our interference belittled the original, or I still am. We in fact found the bladder in what we thought was a crease. could we indeed have shed a little new light upon it? During our fi nal session, Frank noticed that a faint line we had previously Marilène had not let me down. The fi nished piece was at assumed to be a crease was in fact a score, as it was circular. I remember once both beautiful and mesmerizing. It has a mysterious qual- driving home from that session regretting having mentioned the crease ity to it that comes from the shadowy accumulation of the data issue—it meant I would have to move everything back to make room for engraved on each of the plates from which it is constructed. the newly discovered bladder. All of the detail is there, but it demands the viewer’s mental I decided I wanted her to be precious, not too big. Fragile and elusive. engagement to create the whole: the minutiae dissected out I chose to draw the cross-sectional drawings on 8-mm-thick sheets of and then reconstructed by the brain into the 3D animal that acrylic, so that when stacked (Fig. 5) she would form a solid block of gave rise to the information in the fi rst place. The effect is acrylic. I polished the edges of the sheets so that she would sparkle in the arresting and moving at the same time. The mystery remains. light. I found a middle size between the drawing and the Lady’s calculated She is at once human, ox and child, with anatomy taken from life size. I tried and tested different inks and varnishes, searched to fi nd each by Leonardo. Its summation is perhaps a statement of his the right tones, tried to emulate the browns and sepias of Leonardo’s knowledge at that particular time. Our Great Lady has taken on drawing. I traced each axial slice Frank and I had worked out onto sheets a life of its own, and the experience will live with me forever. of acrylic, referring constantly back to the original drawing in order to get the shading correct. I started with the bottom slice: number 80—two ovals for the legs; then 79—a vein and artery arrive; at 76 the legs join. References and Notes Over two days she emerged. And as I stepped back to look at her, she Unedited references as provided by the authors. vanished. 1. See also Marilène Oliver, “The MRI Scanner: An Ideal Instrument for Portrai- Stand 6 feet away from the sculpture of The Great Lady and she ture,” Leonardo 37, No. 5 (2004) p. 374. disappears. The optical illusion that gives her 3D form also allows her to 2. H. Anna Suh, Leonardo’s Notebooks (2005) New York: Black Dog, p. 150. evaporate into a block of solid acrylic. As you approach her she dances, revealing different parts of herself. Get up really close and she shows General Bibliography you her umbilical arteries. Stand over her and you can see down her Critical Art Ensemble. (1998) Flesh Machine, New York: Autonomedia. throat and into her heart. Stand to the side and she will show you the Dixon, J. (1998) Virtual Futures, London: Routledge. depth of her womb.

Manuscript received 6 March 2007. Marilène Oliver is a London-based artist working with digital medical im- aging to create sculptures. Oliver is currently an M.Phil. student at the Francis Wells is a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Papworth and Royal College of Art researching the use of the digitized body for creating Addenbrookes Hospitals, NHS Foundation Trusts, Cambridge. artworks.

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