Lisa Temple-Cox

Artist statement

My current research is based around visual expressions of psychological ideas of self and identity, reflected through the twin effects of attraction and repulsion engendered by a fascination with remains: specifically, human remains as presented by the medical museum, with its mixed message of instruction and sideshow. To this end I am currently engaged in a process of visiting anatomical museums in order to make work within the body of the museum itself. My interest in the aesthetics and symbolism of the 19C medical museum concerns the use of its collections, taxonomies, and histories as metaphors for a contemporary subjective experience of the body, in life and death.
Ultimately, I aim to take the work I make in the museum back into the gallery, blurring the distinctions between one kind of display or collection and another, creating a kind of cognitive dissonance that might cause the viewer to question their position as spectator. This is an ongoing, multi-disciplinary body of work that employs a process of sensory ethnography to map, record and reflect information on a number of levels, and is currently informing both studio practice and written papers.