Aura

Aura visualises the human circulatory system as an external shadow. This work is inspired by an 18th century engraving of the blood circulatory system, which has been cut from soft black leather. The act of hand cutting leather traces the passage of blood as it circles the body. The webbed veins of the circulatory system are draped over the artist’s body like a second skin. A surgical stainless steel device holds his mouth open, which symbolically silences while opening up the body as a passive receptacle. This device suggests medicalisation of the body, hierarchies of classification and power. Aura attempts to make visible the transmission of social, cultural and political forces across the body.