SomeBody, the knitted aneurysm

   In order to make the SomeBody into a much more immersive piece there are a few removable parts. It seemed to me that for a work to be relevant to as many people as possible I would have to put in more than would appear necessary. This work must perform without me and I can not dictate or even imagine the many ways it will affect the viewers so I put in everything that I can imagine.

   I am however not always able to create all that I would like so there are three collaboration within this piece, the first being with Rachael Matthews an olympic level knitter and textile artist!! She has already worked with me on the spinning of fat but here I needed her to knit an aorta with main arteries attached. 

   I presented to her my model of an aneurysm that had been used by medical students (complete with bulging and burst aneurysms) and said 'can you knit one of these?' Without hesitation she said 'yes' and over the extended periods of lockdown sourced a suitable yarn and knitted this section of human.

   The entire work was knitted in one piece, no joins and there are bifurcations and enlarged areas of aneurysm. It was knitted on three fine needles in fine yarn and is full size.

here it is all coiled up ready to be plugged into the heart......

 

..a close up of the bifurcations

...and here filled with blood

...and empty of blood......blood made of all of the offcuts from making the vascular system (featured earlier.)

NB. although they aren't relevant in the anti-knife crime context we left the aneurysms in so that the model can have another life if need be.

next: what happens when we turn the back page of the book.

SomeBody, (other organs)

 

gall bladder on the liver

  How many organs are there???? For the purposes of the model and with expert consultation as to positioning them I placed the gut on the previous 'page' .This way I could have the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, pancreas and kidneys all together as an origami like section which was simultaneously physically behind the gut but narratively following on from it . I mixed my paper folding techniques as I needed to use sturdy structures for both handling and for construction. This also gave a very different look to this page so implying a different surgical approach.

liver against the muscle layer

  I employed the Chinese thread purses, origami fortune tellers and one ornate folded napkin technique all in correct colours ( as I saw them) and layered sheer silks on top of taffetas to suggest membranes, structure and fragility.

spleen

   The softer organs as I think of them, spleen, pancreas and kidneys were eventually mounted into organza purses so that they could be folded back during an operation. This is where the triple page construction came into its own as organs could be juxtaposed against 'flesh' as well as examined more metaphorically. Each page is divided into three as in those children's books where you can swap heads, bodies and feet around. This method is found throughout the book save the first and last pages.

pancreas

  The kidneys sit inside their silk pouches, one folded back across the other but tethered by long arteries.

kidneys against the vascular layer

next: the knitted aneurysm

SomeBody, the lungs

 

  The positioning of the lungs within the pages of the book structure had to be done with some thought as there are, of course, two of them! They have to be behind the diaphragm but in front of the heart and not interfere with the stab wound scenario.Access would be needed through the model so consideration was needed regarding as to which lung was stabbed and whether the heart would be pierced too. I decided against that and created one lung with air and one without.

   The construction was the same as the heart and used the Chinese thread purse method. Layers of organza over silk, pink over pink or pink over grey suggest the state of the lungs and the vitality of them. In the breathing lung I used more of the organza honeycomb technique, layering sheer silk with metallic and lining every folding pocket section with it. The airless, stabbed lung is 'plain'.

 

They sit on top of each other, one folding back to reveal the other across the heart. The knife wound sits in the base pocket of the right hand lung and is embroidered with colours and textures chosen to say 'not good'.

next: lower abdominal organs

SomeBody, the Heart

 

   The most emotive of organs, the heart is a symbol we use every day and yet in reality it bears little resemblance to the 'like' heart we know so well. Unlike my studio practise I often revert to metaphor with the medical work and here I decided that a Chinese thread purse would do the trick. Originating in southern China the multi folded paper purses have compartments within compartments and are used to store precious and small items: threads, photos and mementos. 

    There are silk chambers to this heart, with taffeta and organza origami fortune tellers...

.....chain loops form delicate structures and the valves open and close like old camera lenses.

  The last chamber has interwoven ribbon loops in two shades of red (bright and dark ) which pass through a central folded structure .

next: lungs

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