Exhibition by British Ceramicist Paddy Hartley Opens at RSU Anatomy Museum

It has only been a year since the Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) Anatomy Museum opened its doors to visitors after extensive construction, but it has already become a popular destination for locals and visitors. British artist Paddy Hartley’s visit to the museum last year was inspirational and led to a new exhibition titled Foetal Attraction, which has now been integrated into the museum's permanent exhibition. The exhibition will be open to the public at the Anatomy Museum until 26 January 2023.

As medical historian Professor Juris Salaks pointed out at the opening, Foetal Attraction is a respectful yet humorous commentary on the Anatomy Museum's hundred years old collection. The clay figurines, which the artist himself refers to as “foets”, are not displayed separately, but rather integrated among the exhibits. In his opening address, Hartley invited visitors to approach the exhibition almost like a treasure hunt and search for the 100 playful foets (or embrijēni, as Marija Leskavniece, a journalist from IR magazine, called them in Latvian) scattered throughout both floors of the museum.

The Anatomy Museum as a whole is designed to celebrate the diversity of the human body - differences in human bodies is normal, and identical replication is almost unheard of. The human structure and its variations tend to surprise even experienced surgeons, said Professor Aigars Pētersons, RSU Rector, at the opening and pointed out that this exhibition is in line with the museum’s mission in the way in which it gives an unusual perspective on anatomy. The Rector expressed his satisfaction that the Museum and its team, under the leadership of Asst. Prof. Ieva Lībiete, had managed to capture the attention of the world-renowned artist in such a short time, allowing local and foreign visitors to enjoy the fruits of this collaboration.

Hartley is a ceramicist known for having his art worn by Lady Gaga and for being passionate about researching World War I artefacts. His topics of trenches, trauma, and the destruction of war are poignantly relevant today. Hartley is also a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Tissue Engineering and Biophotonics, King's College London, and in addition to ceramics, he uses digital photography, digital crafts, installations, bio-tissue compositions, and other techniques in his work.

Hartley is currently visiting Riga with two exhibitions. The exhibition The Cost of Life will be open to the public in the Great Hall of the Art Academy of Latvia until 29 September. The exhibition is travelling to Riga from Basel and celebrates the 125th anniversary of a Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche. The artist’s work can be seen as a commentary on what medical advances have done for human progress and their sometimes contradictory consequences. Hartley has always had a patient-centred view – he is interested in how patients feel about their bodies during illness. In the works on display, the artist has explored connections between life and death, health and illness, control and helplessness, as described to him by both patients and doctors in conversations that have taken place over 25 years. 

Read more about the exhibition Foetal Attraction and the Anatomy Museum in IR magazine (in Latvian)
 
Photos from the opening in Kas Jauns magazine