Disaster Series


In the 12 works in The Disaster Series I have digitally layered two examples of 19th-century images; pages from anatomical atlases, and disaster scenes from 19th-century illustrated newspapers and graphic publications such as the London Illustrated News. Through various digital imaging techniques, I have inserted the disaster scenes into the deep anatomical regions of the body; shipwrecks swirl inside the cranium, great fires burn in the chest regions, distressing volcanoes erupt in the lungs. In suggesting that tragedies, losses, and sufferings might lodge themselves deep inside our anatomies, this series investigates the central role of disaster in the development of Western science’s empirical investigations, notions of “progress” and the construction of identity.