SomeBody, the gut layer

  The diaphragm pops up and the guts move in silk bags. Peachy pink, shell pink, golden yellow; all colours found in the gut, a riot of sunset and beachwear......it is the surprise that greets you behind the onslaught of reds. 

 
The bags are an allusion to the solution to the endless wriggling of the intestines during surgery, they go in a bag to make room for the surgeon to work.

The diaphragm is a much more elusive organ to represent but I had solved this in the Textile Body by using the historical corsetry technique of reed boning. Swirling lines of narrow channels drawn from my Gray's Anatomy gave the interlocking 'leaves' of the diaphragm enough bounce to have hiccups.

Eight meters of silk gut, in two colours, gave an upper and lower intestine. The colours of the bags suggested the omentum and bowel and a very pretty buttonhole in seashell shades with french knots makes a life changing stab wound.

 

next: the heart

SomeBody, the muscle layer

 

  Frills, inspired by 18th C. panniered dresses and their elaborate trimmings, made in taffeta and adorned with metallic organza rouleaux form  the muscle, tendon and fascia layers of the book. Three shades of red give it much more depth and make it oh so bloody and real. As it sits on top of the vascular layer at this point the depth becomes a physical reality and begins the visual and surgical journey into the body.

Constructing this in my mind I knew that to make sense of  the visual complexity of surgery I had to make a language in the silk structures that I could carry on throughout the book. Another layer can actually been seen behind the muscle and blood which has not yet entered the narrative but is hidden in plain sight.

  and you still can't yet see the guts held behind on the next page..... but you can feel them through the stab wound.

next: guts

SomeBody, the vascular layer

 

   Miles and miles of rouleaux loops, that's what you need to make a vascular layer. Well, 30m of rouleaux in two shades of silk taffeta which are then woven together to form a dense layer.

    This open weave texture had to also mask what was going on behind; the emotional layer on the reverse. As a double sided book each page has its reverse side which had to either be disguised of integrated. The central pages ( vascular, muscle and guts) are also split into three to aid comparison as surgery is performed and so making both sides, at this point, in the same shades of red enhanced the bloodiness of it all.

next up: the muscle/tendon /fascia layer

SomeBody, the fat layer

 

 

   The first of three collaborations on this project was with Rachael Matthews.She had already knitted me a fat layer for the Textile Body and I wanted continuity with this piece . Once again she bought raw fleece and drop spindled it into a bumpy fat yarn which she then proceeded to knit up whilst we chatted in the studio. Sometimes she ran out of yarn in the middle of a row and so just spun a bit more there and then and carried on! 

  This layer sits behind the skin and above the next vascular layer and, as in a real body, cushions and masks what is below. Rachael also produced a spectacular piece for the vascular system which I shall feature later.

up next: the vascular layer

SomeBody, the skin layer

 

 

   

   When I did the skin layer for the Textile Body it was completely removable and required a simple treatment.This model had to set up a narrative though and so I began with the understanding, from my research, that most knife attacks inflict multiple lacerations to the arms where people try to defend themselves. This is not a pretty subject so as usual I looked to historical costume for inspiration and settled on a mix of Tudor and Stuart (1600-1800). 

   There are two panels to each layer/double page spread and so what appears when you first open the book is a pair of pockets on a silk coat. Looking deeper you see that the slashes in the silk reveal different fabrics behind the top one so easing you into a more anatomical understanding . The metaphor of coat as epidermal layers also carries the narrative which is performed alongside the book.

  The pages themselves take the form of slashed silk embroidered panels with large pocket flaps and 'deaths head' embroidered buttons. When the pocket flaps are lifted they reveal silk organza honeycomb inserts usually seen in paper decorations! It took a while to work out how to do this as the paper version is glued and I needed to stitch...but it all worked out in the end! 

 

 Stab wounds appear throughout the book as buttonholes, some elaborate some plain. At the beginning they are ornate and sometimes oddly shaped echoing the messy cuts of kitchen knives.

up next: fat layers

SomeBody, introduction

 

   So, an unexpected turn to events. Just as I thought that the medical work had finished I was asked to create a new medical model.  Imperial College was launching an anti-knife crime project aimed at young people and needed a model rather like the Textile Body (see most posts below!) but in full colour. 

  Then we went into lockdown. However, 18 months later I handed over the SomeBody, a large double sided textile book full of physical and emotional anatomy.It is designed to inspire both surgical and empathic insight into the terrible violence that many young people face.

  A lot of time was spent researching what I could make that would be meaningful to young people and also be practical as a public engagement piece. There was also the anxiety of the pandemic to wrestle with and this was sometimes an almost insurmountable challenge.

 The process was long and labyrinthine so I shall set it out as a list of thoughts; it is by no means a timeline as I tend to think in 'cloud' and then draw out meaning like spinning yarn!

1.what does it look like?

2.research book construction

3. re-evaluate the Textile Body

4.materials?

5. watch psychology videos

6. research what other organisations have dome

7. research how the body is represented in different cultures

8. double-sided? re-think everything

9. sketchbook

10. design , re-design, re-design, re-design, re-design,

11. make samples

12. how much silk??????

13. make, make, make, make

14. collaborate with Rachael Matthews on two parts of the book.

15. visit the Wyvern Bindery who will be making it into a book.

16. have anxiety attacks about whether it actually works.

17. deliver to Imperial College and hand over to Rachel Warr to work out the performance aspect.

next up: the skin layer.

Spare Parts

 

 Paul Craddock has just published his book "Spare Parts: A Surprising History of Transplants". His extensive research into the history of the techniques of surgery found us both examining antique embroideries at the V&A museum and later led to filming me stitching cigarette paper. 

This post shows that film    

In the film clip above Paul discusses what is was all about.

and now you can buy the book!