Syphilis.

[London], 2008.

1 vase : slip-cast earthenware ; 13 x 12 x 12 cm

Tamsin van Essen. All rights reserved.

Wellcome Collection 3306437i

Exhibited in 'Skin' at Wellcome Collection, London, 10 June - 26 September 2010.

Medical Heirlooms explores the stigma of diseases, questioning contemporary obsessions with perfection and beauty. The artist manipulates ceramic material in a way that emulates physiological processes, deliberately encouraging ‘faults’, ‘defects’ and ‘blemishes'. These features add visual and tactual interest to the vessels and are intended to mirror the interest and individuality that can be added to a person’s appearance by scars, flaws or deformities from medical conditions (their health legacy). Based on 17th -18th century apothecary jars, the forms have strong historical and medical links, as well as providing the metaphor of vessel as body: they become containers for disease, rather than holding the cure. As family heirlooms, the jars can be passed down through the generations in the same way as hereditary medical conditions.

Title provided by the artist.

Purchased by Wellcome Collection from the artist in 2010.