Amidst the pandemic, this project took shape.
Artist and Researcher 4
I met with Professor Ya-Wen Chen to discuss the work conducted in her laboratory. While her presentation was clearly informative, the daily workings of the lab remain a mystery. That opacity drove my artistic process. After the first of our two meetings, Professor Chen emailed me a photo of a lung organoid that had grown into a heart shape on February 14th. Both lung and heart, I began to grow and multiply this sample onto an imaginary wall. Layered upon these repeated cell motifs are life-size drawings of lungs and their structural protector, the ribcage. Glassine, a semitransparent paper used between pages to shield prints or illustrations, provides the surface for this double-sided drawing. Placed above, metallic strands trace contours of the lungs, trachea, bronchial tubes, arteries and veins and are sutured to a “pleural” silk membrane. From cell to anatomy to breath, each surface is compressed between two layers of acrylic not unlike a microscopic slide, specimen and its coverslip. Informed by Cubism where all sides of an object are flattened against a picture plane, this act of compression and translucency points to a longtime interest in drawing as seeing through to a transcendent other (side). For this virtual exhibition, the piece 72” x 24” is displayed “in-situ” and is presented along with layer details. Included are close ups of both obverse and reverse.
Having completed an exploration of the lungs, I have been working towards a diptych—lungs and heart.
These “cells” (Japanese papers, grasscloth, cork, photocopies on velum and painted paper) further my explorations of lung and heart cell/organoid motifs. 6 shown out of 100, they will be installed in a scatter motif on a gallery wall with the heart and lung panels suspended before the wall as a threshold. 2020 -2022.
7.5″ x 5.5″ digital imagery, watercolor / hand-made papers
Lisa Lesniak 