It was the artists who took anatomy out of the operating room. About half a century ago, when doctors began to dissect the anatomical truth of the human body, artists were invaluable companions in this endeavour. More than companions. It was the artist, who possessed the ability to translate anatomical reality into the language of lines, tonal values and colours. In other words, they were able to transform the anatomically real into an image. The criteria for classical anatomical drawings are comprehension, legibility, clarity and simplicity; yet all those values are rendered obsolete when standing in front of Brenda
Purtsak’s works. Here we are met with intertwined and striated flesh, which resists clarity in depiction. In some sense, what we encounter may be labelled as the inevitability of anatomy.
Not in the sense of the divide between body and spirit, instead the inevitable is revealed in a simple and practical truth: the body is a process. Living is an endurance sport. Purtsak’s works tell us about ungovernable bodies, which were to be controlled and
mastered through the invention of anatomical drawing. They tell us about objects beyond comprehension, which possess means of expression ranging from unbearable pain to sublime ecstasy. About a sense of self, the understanding of which rarely extends beyond „this is where it hurts.“ The artist has captured in her work a raw bodily experience, which can only be controlled in the temples of modern medicine; which usually has control over us.
„Incision“ is a retrospective exhibition, which places at the heart of it the human body’s fantastic, uncanny, painful and beautiful relationship with itself. (Text by Aleksander Metsamärt)
Purtsak’s works. Here we are met with intertwined and striated flesh, which resists clarity in depiction. In some sense, what we encounter may be labelled as the inevitability of anatomy.
Not in the sense of the divide between body and spirit, instead the inevitable is revealed in a simple and practical truth: the body is a process. Living is an endurance sport. Purtsak’s works tell us about ungovernable bodies, which were to be controlled and
mastered through the invention of anatomical drawing. They tell us about objects beyond comprehension, which possess means of expression ranging from unbearable pain to sublime ecstasy. About a sense of self, the understanding of which rarely extends beyond „this is where it hurts.“ The artist has captured in her work a raw bodily experience, which can only be controlled in the temples of modern medicine; which usually has control over us.
„Incision“ is a retrospective exhibition, which places at the heart of it the human body’s fantastic, uncanny, painful and beautiful relationship with itself. (Text by Aleksander Metsamärt)
Foto/Photo: Roman-Sten Tõnissoo