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Artists Consider Manipulation of Human Form

Analyzing how cosmetic surgery, science, and art interact in a new exhibit on display at the Academy.

Published March 31, 2005

By Fred Moreno
Academy Contributor

Image courtesy of Acronym via stock.adobe.com.

Although the Hindu surgeon Sushruta noted how to reconstruct a nose from a patient’s cheek as far back as 600 B.C., plastic surgery is said to have begun during the Renaissance with the Italian Gasparo Tagliacozzi. He originated a method of nasal reconstruction in which a flap from the upper arm is gradually transferred to the nose.

Plastic surgery (a term which covers both reconstructive and cosmetic surgery) has come a long way since then and it is now one of the largest medical specialties in the United States. It is a good example of how market demand can drive medical developments, as technology races to keep up with consumer desire. But the decision to alter one’s face or body, surgically or otherwise, continues to raise questions about the social impact of medicine and technology, the manipulation of the human form, as well as issues of identity, self-esteem, and health, both physical and psychological.

Face Value: Plastic Surgery and Transformation Art

An exhibition opening April 8 in the Gallery of Art & Science of The New York Academy of Sciences, Face Value: Plastic Surgery and Transformation Art, takes a look at these questions through the eyes of more than a dozen contemporary artists who are imagining new parameters for body identity in a wide range of media, from painting to photography— and even through personal body manipulation. Curated by artist Suzanne Anker, chair of the Art History Department at New York’s School of Visual Arts, the exhibition will include works by Erica Baum, Aaron Cobbett, Margi Geerlinks, Leigh Kane, Daniel Lee, Lilla LoCurto and Bill Outcault, Orlan, Julia Reodica, Aura Rosenberg, Chrysanne Stathacos, and Linn Underhill.

“In many ways, plastic surgery lies at the nexus of medicine and consumerism,” Anker says. “How visual artists interpret that interaction can say a lot about the nature of beauty and our society’s medical and cultural values.”

Also read: The Art and Science of Human Facial Perception


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