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  • Artist’s Concept Note
  • Hayv Kahraman

The work rendered on the cover of JMEWS 11:3 is part of an ongoing series in which I want to link the concept of physical borders and divisions created geographically with corporeal divisions in the form of anatomical dissections. While doing research on anatomy, I came across a field called cross-sectional anatomical dissection. The visual inspiration was taken from Wilhelm Braune, who performed horizontal dissections on frozen cadavers and in 1877 published The Atlas of Topographical Anatomy. I found the cross sections in this book intriguing, as they created an uncommon perspective of the human body. I decided to create a work based on cross sections of my own body, which involved a rather performative act of 3-D scanning and processing of my upright body with an accuracy and detail of 0.3 mm. The three-dimensional rendering of my body was then cross-sectioned into horizontal quarter-inch-thick slices, 542 slices from head to toe. I chose a few slices from each section of the body and nested them into two pentagonal panels, creating a decagram. At the time I was also researching shanasheel (Iraqi) or mashrabiya. These wooden perforated screens are used in homes as an architectural element to conceal the private from the public.

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