half art
CHRIS THURMAN: Melancholia — a soul-searching art exhibition aptly displayed in a museum
An exhibition exposing the sad contradictions of life and death, darkness and light
I recently explored the University of Cape Town’s Pathology Learning Centre. Tucked away in the labyrinth of buildings constituting the Health Sciences campus, in the shadow of the Groote Schuur Hospital complex, the centre is an Aladdin’s Cave of medical history. The former Pathology Museum, dating back to the construction of the medical school on the lower slopes of Devil’s Peak in the 1920s, contains some fascinating records. Diligently compiled autopsy reports hint at the details of life stories even as they focus on bodies on the mortuary table. Black and white photographs that ostensibly served to document pathologies — the effects of syphilis, say — capture the humanity of their subjects in evocative portraits. Most striking, however, are the shelves filled with specimens in various states of preservation: row upon row of organs, tissues, muscles, veins and nerves, resected and cross-sectioned and lovingly captured in Perspex and formaldehyde. They are all tagged and numbered...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.