``Dissection of the human body was for much of its history not primarily a technical process conducted for teaching, research or autopsies. Nor were they most commonly undertaken in the privacy of medical institution rooms. The most prominent dissections were staged as public performances in specially constructed theatres. (The term still used in hospitals today.)

The audience was as likely to consist of curious non specialists as aspiring members of the medical profession, and the interior wonders of the body were rendered to view in sequence to a pre-determined choreography. The professor acted as the star of the performance, which was generally conducted according to the plot of a set text that was being read out to the eager group of spectators. `` (Kemp &Wallace, Spectacular Bodies, 2000)

This piece is inspired by the works of Harry Clarke and the battles contained within them, between the grotesque and the beautiful, the religious and the obscene. These battles have been and always will be, ever present within this world of absurd ; the refusal to be what we are....the age old quest

to be more than we are...............

Anne Wallace

2013