Launceston General Hospital
Launceston, Tasmania

art+science

Shifting paradigms/Self-portraits
Medical images/computer prints on film,
DNA sample, ink, acrylic
Each 30 x 35cm
1996

This work attempted to construct a contemporary portrait which went beyond a concern with appearance. The anatomical images were acquired from the my body using medical imaging and relate to historical notions for the location of intangibles within the body. For example, Da Vinci located the soul at the junction of the optic nerves; thereby linking light, vision and truth and a series of five eye images related to this. In Hebrew mythology the Yester - a form of creative imagination - is positioned at the junction of the valves of the heart.

The abstract pattern in the work is also from my body - from my imagination. A DNA sample is included behind the pattern, alluding to a connection between the concept of DNA as a human program and the computer program. The energy expressed by the pattern is suggestive of some inherent potential in both imagination and the DNA.