Aesthetics of Prosthetics
Nicola Lane
Nicola's installation consists of four parts. The first is a series of poster-sized reproductions of seven Edwardian black and white photographs, taken in a traditional photographer's studio against a variety of different backdrops. These photographs originally showed the clients of an Edwardian prosthetist wearing their disability aids - artificial legs, arms and body braces.
In the installation, though, these aids have been digitally removed from the photographs, leaving behind their shape in grey. Another series of seven posters shows the aids themselves, pictured against a grey background.
The second part of the installation consists of a series of four poster-sized photographs. Each shows an historical artificial limb, made between the eighteenth and early twentieth century, photographed against a brightly coloured background.
Accompanying these images is the Jaipur Limb, and an example of a modern Western "cosmesis", a life-like lower leg made of silicon (this is used as a cover for the underlying prosthesis).
© The City Gallery, Leicester and the artists: 2001
This site was built by Ju Gosling aka ju90 during an artist's residency at Oriel 31 in November 2001