Anna Lucas: Demonstration 50.15

About

OVADA presents a solo exhibition of new work by Anna Lucas produced from a residency at the University of Oxford Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics in 2008-9. Lucas' film, Demonstration 50.15 shows a cool hued portrait of the University's anatomy lab and follows the repetitive daily activities of the mortuary technician as he embalms and prepares bodies for medical students. The work reveals his quiet dignity and diligence within an environment more often recognised for ethical controversies or scientific breakthroughs. The absence of visible flesh due to recent laws protecting the identity of the deceased enables the film to both maintain and collapse the myth and mystery of the space. The exhibition also includes Blind Movies limited edition book of one hundred and sixty two blind carbon drawings made between 2006-2009, with an accompanying essay by film writer Silke Panse. Lucas' technique involves drawing onto carbon paper for the duration of an entire movie. The drawings become a disintegrated tangle of marks creating a documentation of sound and light manifested as a physical object. During her residency Lucas drew in response to movies that relate to the subject of sensory enhancement, deprivation and perception focusing on Land of Silence and Darkness, Werner Herzog 1971. The exhibition will include live carbon drawings made in the anatomy department as research for the film Demonstration 50.15.