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Suspended Self Portrait, Carolyn L. Henne
"Suspended Self Portrait" is an interactive sculpture that consists of 89 vinyl sheets painted with cross-section images taken from the Visible Human data set.
To determine the cross-sections, artist Carolyn Henne made of mold of herself and sliced it. Then she painted a corresponding Visible Human cross-section -- organs, muscles, fat, bone -- on each sheet.
From a distance, the body seems to float in three dimensions. Closer up, the internal organs seem to assemble and disassemble as the visit moves around it. Blowing on the sheets or running fingers along the edges causes the figure to subtly move as if floating or breathing.
The use of information from the Visible Human dataset allowed the artist to literally depict the internal being. Like much of Carolyn Henne's work, "Suspended Self Portrait" involves an attempt to portray facets of the inner self that are often unclaimed by the self that must maintain its profile in the real world.
"Suspended Self Portrait" was part of a larger installation called "There's Here." "There's Here" was a contemplation of the here and now via a depiction of the afterlife. This installation incorporated a number of interactive elements fixtures. "Suspended Self Portrait" was suspended between the underworld and the heavens. |