Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva - Dialogues Symposium Artist

INFORMATION / RESPONSE TO ARTIST FROM DIALOGUES SYMPOSIUM

In the Dialogues Symposium there was one artist who really caught my eye. Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva's work used incredibly unsual material; animal organ tissue, to construct large haunting installations. She talked first about 'Fragility', a comissioned installation constructed from the caul fat of a pig, stretched and laminated in plastic tapestries. Elpida spoke about her reasoning behind this; she wanted to repurpose the church space into a kind of spiritual temple, with a bright window shining along one end of the corridor which she hoped would suggest life's final moments, and the idea of 'going into the light'. She also suggested that when we feel stress and emotion, that we 'feel it through our stomachs e.g your stomach drops', which makes the use of animal stomach tissue an interesting choice when dealing with emotionally charged subjects such as death.

Next she spoke of Haruspex, the name of a religious official who was said to interpret omens by analysing the entrails of sacraficial animals. She summarised the concept behind this in three powerful quotes. First, she began with a passage from the bible; "In the beginning... the word became flesh." Composed of pig fat, lambs intestines, and a particular part of a cows stomach called the 'bible' it is easy to see why body matter is a key influence in her practice. Next, she stated that this piece was in part inspired by Hubert Van Eyck's 'Adoration of the Mystic Lamb', the centrepiece in a selection of altar panels created by the artist. Spirituality and religion were also revealing themselves as central themes of her practice. Finally, she offered a momento mori style quote; "No matter who you are, what you do, we all die."  Reaffirming the brevity of life, and human mortality are also key concepts in Elpida's work.

She also described the technical difficulties of exhibiting animal intestines. For Haruspex, the work was installed in the Vatican in Rome, and had to survive seven months and over five hundred thousand visitors, so she had to take special measures to preserve the piece and prevent decay. This was particularly difficult with the cow's stomach bible (see right), so named because of it's many layers of thin tissue, so thin they are compared to bible pages. This part of the stomach requires lots of intense cleaning, has very little monetary value, and is normally put with abbetoire wastage. The religious concerns of the catholics in the Vatican did not sit well with the idea of animal products however, and instead of listing each organ specifically as Elpida had hoped, they instead only labelled the work as 'organic matter'.

One of the most interesting things for me however was watching the audience response to her work. Many understood exactly what she was trying to capture in her work, however others were disgusted, saying it was 'disrespectful to the life of the animal' that it's flesh should be manipulated for the sake of art. Others also struggled with the fact that she did not excuse or attempt to justify her use of animal organs outright, and pitched her ideas as if they were just made of ordinary material. Even as an environmentalist and animal lover I find this opinion to be a rather closed-minded condemnation, and so waited until the open question dialogues opened later to question her about her usage of animal products. Just as I had suspected, 80% of the material she uses would be rejected outright and disposed of in an abbatoire. She also required official regulatory certification, justifying her means and planned usage, before she was allowed to remove any animal products, and had built up contacts with safe, reliable and humane abbatoires from which she sourced all materials. I personally have always had a keen interest in biology, animals and science, so found her work absolutely fascinating. I have always loved the patterns created within nature, and find her use of pig caul fat hauntingly beautiful in an alternative way.

She then also went on to say how her work has been proven to open new dialogues between human doctors and patients. 'Talking about your bowel is not an easy thing.' she stated, discussing how she had been approached by appreciative people who suddenly felt enabled to properly deal with their health issues after seeing such positive presentations of actual organ tissue. Her work; "Prototypes for Making a Machine to Reveal Beauty" (see right) was composed of 3D printed nylon objects, used by doctors to regenerate tissue when implanted into the gut, and then degrade naturally, leaving a repaired digestive system. By presenting these objects in a fine art context, patients were able to better understand their procedure and felt normalised once the stigma surrounding the digestive system had been removed, even appreciating the unusual beauty in the objects. Now that I had heard full justification for her use of animal organs, I felt much more satisfied that her usage was entirely respectful, and was infact minimising waste whilst giving benefit on a wider scale. I also feel like her reason for not going out of her way to justify the materials on an ethical level (despite the fact i would have myself), is down to her desire to focus on and celebrate the qualities of the material and it's connotations. So long as her need for material does not expand beyond the materials already there which would be otherwise wasted, and her work does not contribute directly to the death and farming of animals, I do not really think there is a negative impact.

I was really intruigued by the work of Hadzi-Vasileva. Her works depicted a strange meeting of science, nature and religion, in a very alternative yet tangible media. Although I wouldn't consider using real animal products in my work, I am always fascinted by the patterns and forms created in nature. I also really love the way Elpida constructs spaces, using the natural drape and fall of her materials to lend a macabre grace to her installations.