Catherine Truman

Her sculptures emit a powerful intensity, through a paradoxical fusion of the poignantly human and the eerily inhuman. Their anonymity, the obliteration of the person, touches a raw nerve, reminding us of our mortality as mere flesh and bones. 

Margot Osborne, Adelaide, August , 2005

This work is Influenced by my research of the history of anatomical representation, particularly how general knowledge of anatomy has been influenced…and, in a sense, handmade by others. The skills of the modellers, in particular their personal understanding of the body has played an essential role in how we image the body today.
Can the identity of the anatomical illustrator be detected in the various forms of representation commonly used to teach human anatomy?
Could we read them as a kind of self portraiture ?

This series of brooches is about the slippage between the perfect and the imperfect body, and the levels of distortion and transformation inherent in the processes of anatomical representation throughout history.

I think we each carry our very own notions of the perfect body and yet always feel that we live in an imperfect flesh.  So the body we have sometimes feels like strange, ill-fitting garment.

Made in 2007, these carvings are a contemporary response to anatomical illustrations of head dissections rendered in Europe in the 17th-19th centuries and incorporate techniques and materials I learned in Japan in 1990. I've chosen to isolate the eyes of these engravings and render them three-dimensionally in an attempt to distill their individual identities. I am acutely aware that I am adding another level of interpretation to the original - my personal translation.

I have chosen to use non traditional inlay materials , substituting the pure gold foils traditionally used in the eye inlays of Netsuke carvers of Japan, with the foils of common confectionery wrappers. Hence the titles of these works; Crunchie Eye, Time-out Eye, Mint Pattie Eye, along with Painted Eye and Closed Eye.

Circa 2011, these brooches are carved for an exhibition to celebrate 35 years of Gallery Ra in Amsterdam. They are a development from the Hybrid series of 2009-2010. Clay models were used as a reference for the carvings. The clay was pressed onto scallop shells, then folded and manipulated to create ambiguous organic forms. The fluidity of the clay was translated into the rigidity of the wood.

Originally made for Abstract Nature, and exhibition curated by Margot Osborne at the SAMSTAG Museum, Adelaide in 2010.
Knowledge of the body is never fixed and no object on the table is discreet. Everything is placed and made as a result of a perceived relationship of some sort. 
I’m interested in how the brain works- what we draw on at the level of experience- what’s new territory, what’s old- the 'knowledge' I’m drawing upon to 'see' and to make.
The work is about this process- the work is never finished.
There are no neat conclusions. 

So far I've carved two kidney brooches , I may carve more.

The Kidney Brooch, 2011

This brooch was made for the Tinker Tailor exhibition. I was asked to respond to Professor Priscilla Kincaid Smith, a distinguished nephrologist whose research in the early 1960’s focussed upon the effects of headache powders on the functioning of the kidney. She also contributed to research on the relationship between renal malfunction and high blood pressure and contributed to the development of renal transplantation.

I chose to carve a kidney in mother of pearl shell -Pinctada maxima from Broome, Western Australia. Shells filter the sea to feed, they are precious and jewel like, they grow in layers . Nacre is continually deposited onto the inner surface of the animal's shell, both as a means to smooth the shell and as a defense against parasitic organisms and damaging detritus. The iridescent nacreous layer is also known as mother of pearl. It is precious and treasured as a material.

Kidneys are miraculous filters and we cant live without them. They purify the blood and control the levels of fluid and ion in the body, removing nitrogenous waste products and excreting any excesses. 

A kidney donated to extend the life of another human being is a profound and precious gift.

Kay's Kidney, 2015

This Kidney was commissioned by Kay Lawrence in memory of her mother who sadly passed away due to kidney failure.

Some uncertain facts was a solo exhibition held at Gallery Funaki, Melbourne, Australia, November 13 - December 8, 2012. 

Having worked as an artist amongst scientists for many years I have uncovered something of the relationship between us - between our motivation, our focus, our inquiries and translations.  I have come to realise the processes of science and art are not so dissimilar. We both agree that unknowing moves us forward and that there is an inherent level of risk and uncertainty in both.  We both create images of the things we see and the more we see, the more we understand we don’t know. The images are a translation - a nuanced approximation.

The works in this exhibition are a collection of forms made in relation to one another, the previous one giving the next a reason for existing. They form an installation of a kind, perhaps a never-ending conundrum of propositions.  Natural and manufactured, in part and whole, they are both uncertain and assured at once.

Catherine Truman 2012

Lately I have begun to think of my own studio as a laboratory of sorts… and my practice as an evolving process of enquiry and experimentation.

My aim is not to replicate scientific process, but rather to explore and interpret various scientific methodologies, for example: collection, identification, taxonomy, analysis of structure and function, along side environmental context and impact. I am interested in experimenting with new combinations of techniques and materials common to both scientific laboratory research and my studio practice

By bringing together these seemingly disparate and sometimes analogous materials to create new forms my aim is to bring into question our role in their existence; to query their origin, function, physiology, sense of place, to evoke a sense of uncertainty, to create a conundrum of meaning and provoke more complex inquiry.

As an artist I have learnt that making things with my hands leaves me with much less of a sense of dislocation from the world I live in- and this, I feel is an interesting premise from which to examine the world of science.

Catherine Truman 2013