“These once fleshly living entities, are here re-composed in new assemblages; ones which speak to symmetry, delicacy and structure while possessing a sophisticated sense of grace.”

The primal desire to explore the depths of the human body has historically been driven by varied and sometimes contradictory aims, pursued through diverse methods, while in many ways contributing to the way we see not only ourselves but our relationship with the outer world, and in turn our relationship with architecture. Corresponding with the mapping of the body through the ages the idea of the body itself has transformed from that of the antiquarian mystical body, to the Renaissance body as object to be dissected and anatomized, to the machino-body of the Industrial Revolution, to the data-body of the Digital Age - as exemplified by contemporary medical imaging. The body as dissolved in the digital realm.

As much of a response to as an exploitation of the data-body of the contemporary digital dissector, Haute Vas·cou(la)ture uses human cerebral vasculature data as a generator for form, while following two separate yet interrelated fields of inquiry. Firstly, the author argues that the contemporary tendency to import notions of the biological into art and architecture are more often than not superficial and visually obsessed; this series of sculptures, emblazoned in polished gold, acts as a blatant critique to, and a pure embodiment of, superficial architecture.

“What was once understood to be grotesque and unsightly is now undeniably glamorous.”

At the same time, the work seeks a physical output which is radically different from the digital input - in this case primary and secondary blood vessels of the human brain – while commenting on the notion that the interior of the human body, generally considered as a subject of disgust, is here re-presented as an object of precious beauty. What was once understood to be grotesque and unsightly, is now undeniably glamorous.

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