The Human Body and the medical practices performed on it were long ago considered an art form, as well as a science. Ancient Egyptians mummified dead bodies, and would bury them with their most prized possessions in a careful, delicate, and artistic manner, with the more elaborate and exquisitely decorated mummifications being saved for the wealthy or prestigious deceased. Ancient Greeks were obsessed with the body of man, and considered it to be the single most beautiful thing, and would dissect bodies to better understand the human machine. In Leonardo Da Vinci's time, it was invaluable to an artist in sculpting or painting humans to understand the body on a deeper level. Da Vinci performed private dissections and drew detailed drawings of human anatomy. His work was a significant contribution to the social acceptance of the body in Europe.
 |
| Ancient Egyptian Mummy |
 |
| Leonardo Da Vinci and proportioned body of man |
However, in our day and age, science and especially medicine isn't naturally considered an art form. An art student would not likely consider herself to be scientist or medical practitioner, and vice versa. This is evident in seeing the evolution of oath-taking by graduating medical students. To take an oath to perform ones job to the best of one's ability, and to execute one's craft with morality, has a ritualistic and artistic undertone. The Hippocratic Oath, which emerged in the 6th century B.C.--formulated by the "father of medicine" Hippocrates--holds some of the basic tenants that many modern medical oaths taken today include. The Hippocratic Oath held such promises as to treat all sick people to the best of that doctor's ability, to preserve patient privacy, to teach the secrets of medicine to the next generation without cost, and to promise to never perform an abortion or a patient-assisted suicide. Many of these things have become outdated with the progression of our society, but taking a modern version of the oath is still practiced everywhere, but it is less enforced; there is really no penalty for transgressing the oath.
It is interesting to see how in earlier times, the art of medicinal practice was upheld and cherished. One quote out of the Hippocratic Oath states that "In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art". Today, pre-med and med students bustle from science class to science class, and stare into anatomy and calculus textbooks for hours on end. Everything is factual and scientific at its core; the lines of morality and artistry to one's practice have blurred as medical technologies have advanced.
However, medicine and art still merge outside of the doctor's office. One French woman, who has named herself "Orlan", performs live and recorded shows of herself being operated on. Each time she gets plastic surgery done on her body and face, to show how the human body can be altered by medicine to embody something different. She believes this to be her expression of art, how her body can be molded to have features of different artist's work. She claims to have been performed on to now have the chin of Botticelli's Venus, the nose of Gerome Psyche, the lips of Boucher's Europa, the eyes of 'Diana' from a 16th c. painting, and the forehead of the infamous Mona Lisa.
 |
| Orlan |
If Orlan's aim is to provoke strong emotions in the viewer, she certainly succeeded with me! In watching one of her performances, I cringed countless times and exclaimed out loud how disgusted I was. It might well have been the creepiest video I've ever seen! Although I don't believe routine plastic surgery to be a beautiful art form, it is a perfect example of how medicine and art interact, and I can appreciate how Orlan's performances cause such passionate emotions in the audience.
Bibliography:
Tyson, Peter. "The Hippocratic Oath Today." PBS. PBS, 27 Mar. 2001. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html>.
"Orlan - Carnal Art (2001) Documentary." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no_66MGu0Oo>.
No comments:
Post a Comment