28 June 2018
The Heart of the Matter
On 14 July 2018 a new exhibition, The Heart of the Matter will
open at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) and Centrespace
Gallery in Bristol.
Merging art and medicine to reflect on the human heart with
artworks inspired by patients with congenital heart conditions,
their families and clinicians, this exhibition invites the public
to discover the extraordinary nature of this complex organ.
The exhibition is a collaboration between British artist Sofie
Layton, bioengineer Giovanni Biglino (Senior Lecturer in
Biostatistics, Bristol Heart Institute) and health psychologist Jo
Wray (Senior Research Fellow in the Cardiorespiratory Division and
in the Centre for Outcomes and Experience Research in Children's
Health, Illness and Disability at Great Ormond Street
Hospital).
The Heart of the Matter will run 14 July to 19 August 2018
before continuing its tour to London later in the year at the
V&A Digital Design Weekend and Copeland Gallery from 31 October
to 11 November 2018.
The Heart of The Matter was first conceived by Sofie Layton and
Giovanni Biglino in 2015. Since then they have brought together
patients with heart conditions from Great Ormond Street Hospital
(GOSH) in London, the Bristol Heart Institute, and the Adult
Congenital & Paediatric Heart Unit of the Freeman Hospital in
Newcastle, exploring the heart in workshops with patients as well
as scientists, artists, students, clinicians and nurses.
Conversations and stories arising from these workshops have in
turn inspired artworks that offer insight into the heart's beauty,
fragility and resilience, using scientific and artistic
methods.
A patient who took part in the workshop process said: "The
work with the artist allowed me to reflect on what my condition
meant to me and how it impacted me growing up. This was a good way
to mark the transition into being an adult patient."
The exhibition will be curated across both the RWA and
Centrespace Gallery in Bristol, exploring the heart through
different lenses - medicine, technology, metaphor and
storytelling.
The anatomy of the heart and the medical language used are
explored and reinterpreted through 3D printed heart models, printed
textile diagrams and sound installations, while immersive
installations and sculptural forms explore allegorical conceptions
of the heart and patient experiences of cardiac care.
The artworks reflect on how personal, unique and precious
everybody's heart is to them and on key elements in the journey of
cardiac patients, such as the supporting role of the family, the
puzzle of complex heart surgery, the sacredness and fragility of
life.
A large-scale animation represents patients' narratives using
the visual language of advanced medical imaging and a more intimate
animation conveys a story of resilience, with an animated soldier
floating within a 3D printed heart model. As such, diagnostic tools
become vehicles for telling patients' stories. Admission to the
exhibition is free.
Sofie Layton, lead artist says, "The Heart of the Matter has
been the most extraordinary personal and artistic journey. Working
with patients, parents, scientists and clinicians in a workshop
setting, I have listened to people's metaphorical stories of their
heart and in some circumstances, I have watched them discover what
their own or their child's heart looks like."
"We gathered together the heart narratives of dozens of people,
patients, parents, artists, clinicians and scientists," continues
Sofie, "all of whom have participated in a series of day-long
creative workshops which explored the medical and metaphorical
heart. The images, ideas and stories that emerged from these
workshops are extraordinary, beautiful and thought-provoking."
Giovanni Biglino, Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics, Bristol
Heart Institute says, "Being able to take part in creative
workshops and listening to other people's stories, meeting their
families and creating something together, gives a complete
different connotation to scientific research - it adds an
absolutely necessary dimension of humanity."
"Technology and art can be absolutely complementary in
representing the human body," Giovanni continues. "Today we can
describe in exquisite detail the path of blood flow in an artery,
but we can also start to unravel the stories that are carried
within it and listen to them."
The Heart of the Matter is produced by Susannah Hall (GOSH
Arts), Nicky Petto and Anna Ledgard in association with Artsadmin,
and is supported by the Wellcome Trust, the Blavatnik Family
Foundation, Above & Beyond, Great Ormond Street Hospital
Children's Charity, NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at University
Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and the University of
Bristol and public funding by the National Lottery through Arts
Council England. With thanks to RapidformRCA, 3D Life Print and
British Heart Foundation.
BACK TO NEWS
