Internal Beauty

• Gill’s Slits 2011
  Skate bones, metal clips, perspex box, 45cm x 45cm x 50cm
• Bibles I-IV 2016
  Caul fat, plastic sheet, perspex box, various sizes
• Ladies Purse 4 2011
  Sheep testicle purse lined with silk, antique frame and chain, perspex box, 20cm x 20cm x 20cm
• Prototypes for Making a Machine to Reveal Beauty 2016
  CAD drawing print, 50cm x 50cm and 3-D prints in perspex box, 10cm x 10cm x 10cm
• Revealing Beauty: Three Studies for Figures... 2016
  Caul fat, plastic sheet and LED lights, 50cm x 160cm x 8cm & 100cm x 160cm x 8cm

Grant Museum of Zoology, London
17 January – 28 March 2018

Creating sculptures and installations from caul fat (the tissue that encases pig stomachs and intestines) and other animal organs, artist Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva draws attention to body parts we sometimes would rather forget.

Internal Beauty is an exhibition resulting from Hadzi-Vasileva’s residency in medical research labs, (funded by Wellcome Trust), considering nutrition, our gut and how specialised, microscopic devices can fix problems.

Exploring current research into regenerative medicine, the new artworks use biomedical materials which are still being developed by Dr Richard Day, Dr Giles Major and clinician Professor Alastair Forbes, with associates at University College London, the University of East Anglia and University of Nottingham. These include biological and synthetic degradable glass scaffolds, which replace tissue removed for clinical purposes.

By working closely with medical researchers, Hadzi-Vasileva is using innovative therapeutic devices such as microscopic sphere-based scaffold and drug delivery technology to inform the new work. These prototype spheres are intended to improve healing.

For more information, please visit University College London's website here.