Acne.

2011.

1 vase : slip-cast earthenware ; 18 x 13 cm

Tamsin van Essen. All rights reserved.

Wellcome Collection 3168164i

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

Exhibited in 'Being Human' at Wellcome Collection, London from 5th September 2019.

"Medical Heirlooms explores the stigma of diseases, questioning contemporary obsessions with perfection and beauty. The artist manipulates ceramic material in away that emulates physiological processes, deliberately encouraging ‘faults’, ‘defects’and ‘blemishes'. These features add visual and tactual interest to the vessels andare intended to mirror the interest and individuality that can be added to a person’sappearance by scars, flaws or deformities from medical conditions (their healthlegacy). Based on 17th -18th century apothecary jars, the forms have stronghistorical 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 ashereditary medical conditions."--Tamsin Van Essen.

"The surfaces and shapes of these vases each suggest a different health condition that can be inherited: the spots of acne, the brittle bones of osteoporosis, the rapid cell division of cancer or the flaky skin of psoriasis or ichthyosis. Just as we might inherit a family vase, so too might we inherit these 'medical heirlooms'."--From Being Human exhibition caption.

Ceramic earthenware pot representing acne.

Title provided by the artist.

Purchased by Wellcome Collection from the artist in 2010.