? Christine Borland
Twin, hand-made, child-birth demonstration model
1997
- Scottish Art
Borland is interested in the relationship between art and anatomy, and in the history of medicine. This work was made following the artist's discovery of two hand-made models used by William Smellie (1697-1763), a pioneer of obstetrics in Scotland. Used in child-birth demonstration lessons, the leather and sawdust models contained real foetal skulls. Although they had a macabre and tragic story, the models equally had a positive role as teaching aids. Borland made this model to the exact specifications of the demonstration models, hand-stitching the leather but using a plastic skull. The work poignantly suggests the unknown foetuses used in the original models.
