Natalia Mesa in collaboration with Morenike Magbagbeola, the Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Surgical and Interventional Science (WEISS) at University College London (UCL), The University of the Arts London Post Graduate Community, and a group of people affected by amputation of limbs.
During the art-making process I was determined to stay true to everything I learned from Reni about her research while also keeping in mind the workshop with the patients. It was clear to me from the start that I didn't want to focus on pain, I didn't want the shocking nature of amputation to take away from the other lessons learned. The patients did speak about pain, but they preferred to talk about healing, evolving and adapting. Reni also spoke about the importance of addressing pain (and phantom limb pain) in the research but she emphasized the importance of emotional connection to the prosthetic over anything else. If a person emotionally rejects the prosthetic, no matter how technologically developed it is, it won't work for them. But if a person emotionally accepts the prosthetic, it is more likely to work for them and more likely to greatly reduce their phantom limb pain. By "work for them" I mean a range of things, for example, a prosthetic can "work" in a basic and practical sense of achieving a few tasks. But if more advanced, a prosthetic can "work" by receiving electrical signals from other muscles and carry out predictive finger movements. In Reni's research, a prosthetic could learn to predict what a texture would feel like on the fingertips and deliver that sensation through vibrational motors elsewhere on the body, creating an illusion of feeling texture on the prosthetic's fingertips.
Patients spoke about their mental health quite a bit during the workshop. They were very open and eager to talk about how their mental health had been before and after their amputation. Most of them experienced depression and anxiety to some degree, usually connected to different levels of pain before the amputation and to difficulties adapting after the amputation. Something that stood out to me when they spoke about their mental health was how it invariably improved when their support systems were more present. Family, friends, partners, co-workers, therapists, religious groups - they were all mentioned. If their group accepted and supported them through their amputation, they would recover physically and mentally quicker than those who weren't supported and accepted by their groups. I can't stress enough how big a difference support systems make. Feeling accepted, cared-for, seen and loved is a game changer. It can change a person's journey from one of isolation and pain to one of healing and resilience.
So, with all of this (and a bit more) in mind, I set out to paint some "layers of perception". I engraved mechanical and electrical signaling layers as an ode to Reni's research in prosthetics, painted a layer of chemical signaling, a layer of pain, a layer of "support systems" that look like flowers and a layer of healing. I kept making layers, building a visual language and figuring out how acrylic paint interacted with perspex. I made more layers of healing, phantom limb pain, the body schema, and support systems.
Images of work in progress, engraving and painting on perspex.
From left to right, top row: support systems, chemical signaling, pain.
Bottom row: Meissner's Corpuscle (mechanical receptor), electrical signaling, healing.
A few weeks of experimenting went by. Every other week I would have a meeting with Reni to catch up, show her my progress and hear about her ideas about how to make it better. I tried out different layering orders and made different bases/boxes to display the piece. Over the course of the final months I also started having curatorial meetings with the other two artists and the people at UCL and UAL in charge of the exhibit. When we got to see the big windows where we'd be exhibiting and made some important curatorial decisions, I saw I had space (and the ambition) to make two pieces. And after a very helpful critique with my classmates from my MA, I developed a plan to display each artwork differently to symbolize the lab-setting and the real-life experience of the research.
Images of work in progress, engraving and painting on perspex.
From left to right: testing out a wooden base and layering, different layers in progress, transporting painted layers on a bus
Finally, install days came along. Two days of standing in a window display and pushing plinths around, carrying mannequins, fiddling with lighting and curating along with the other two artists. It was a stressful, wonderful, frustrating amazing time. Then, in the blink of an eye, it was opening night and there was a great crowd of people there to hear the artists and researchers speak about the 8 month long process. We all brought artwork that was made in the workshops and gave short speeches about our process and final outcomes. It was a lovely night filled with touching conversations and great feedback. Although I don't remember my speech well (I was very nervous to speak in front of everyone), I'm sure I emphasized my desire to make art that felt nuanced, evidencing the science but also evidencing the dynamic between pain, healing and emotions. I told everyone I wanted to make art that expressed the importance of listening to the patients and not seeing them as people who have lost limbs, but found a new way of being complete, layered, and complex.
Images from social media of "Layers of Perception" in SURGE III Exhibit.
Last little bit of explanation...
These are sneak peaks of my final two pieces (will share the professional pictures from the photographer when I have access to them). The piece in the clear box (right) represents the lab-setting. In labs things are orderly, contained, defined, closed systems. Whereas the piece on the left represents the more expansive human experience. It has no clear order, it's a bit messier, it doesn't separate healing and pain, and places human interactions before most other things. The contrast between the two displays was intended to highlight the asymmetry we find between a the scientific community's perception of an experience, and the actual human experience.
Video of "Layers of Perception" in SURGE III Exhibit.
Images from the private view credited to:
SURGE III, 2024, Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins, UAL | Photograph: Christopher Bellamy
