Posted on December 9, 2009

Fritha Langerman discusses her latest exhibition at the Iziko South African Museum, Subtle Thresholds, which explores the representational taxonomies of disease.

As an artist, I have, for many years been interested in the manner in which visual codes prescribe the understanding and reception of various disciplines. Bio-medical representation is one of these fertile areas and my current exhibition, Subtle Thresholds at the Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town, explores the representational taxonomies of disease. This is a term more often used in computer programming, but in this instance, I take it to refer to the politicised visual ordering of the medical body.

The questions raised in this exhibition are located within a post-structural position that acknowledges the active nature of knowing, that knowledges are constructions and that the field of medical science is embedded within cultural narratives. It is primarily concerned with the stigma surrounding infectious disease and the manner in which it has been imaged in both the popular imagination and medical literature as a space of separation and difference. This also relates to the language surrounding disease, which relies on the binary oppositions of clean/unclean; known/alien; contaminated/sterile, and the history of epidemiology which interprets infectious diseases in the west as arising from outside European borders - as immigrant, foreigner and invader. The exhibition received impetus from key texts by Foucault, Gilman and Sontag and self-reflexively makes these quotes part of the visual content. One of the many layers on the walls are 24 chalk texts that quote personal, mythical and philosophical readings of the diseased body. Contained within a schematic layout that spans 220m2 of wall space, the use of chalk speaks to the didactic and yet fugitive nature of the material. Similarly the authority of the Times Roman script is undermined by its translation as hand written inscription.

Subtle Thresholds, rests on the belief that active curatorship is able to dislodge previous patterns of viewing and understanding, and that through finely orchestrated relationships objects can sound, if not speak, independently of any authoritative text. It makes reference to Linnaean taxonomy and cladistics, yet uses a lattice of conceptual and visual cross-referencing to undermine this oppositional understanding of species. It co-opts layering and repetition of form through visual 'hyperlinks' to expose the interconnectivity between organisms, world-views and mythologies and the layout evokes a cosmology - a scattering of objects and images. In acknowledging the history of the relationships between images and text and museums and text, this project attempts to disaggregate object and image from text and label, allowing for a sensorial apprehension of the material alongside a more traditional reading of details within it.

In order to disrupt the stigma and fear typically associated with disease, the exhibition co-opts beauty and wonder as visual strategies. Scanning Electron Microscope images of animal faeces – the ultimate feared site of contamination – become beguiling landscapes and viral diagrams constructed from pharmacological lab-ware become magical mandala-like cityscapes. In disrupting the typical associations with disease as a site of ugliness and fear, the intention has been to facilitate a point of contact that promotes further discussion or investigation.

In addition to layering, the exhibition works with a system of dualisms. The layout and visual iconography enable the gallery to be simultaneously read as both a cathedral and a laboratory. The 'angelic wings' are constructed from silhouettes of art historical and popular images of healer's hands and while the shape formally references a schematic tree or set of lungs, it thematically refers to the religious binaries of damnation and salvation associated with disease and healing. This work is paired with the 'ex-voto plague altar' which uses the negative form of the hands as a screen, protecting six bandaged, taxidermied animals (surrogate plague saints) from the viewer. Plague doctor silhouettes run across the top of the screen, making further connections to the bird as a prevalent and ambiguous metaphor within the visual iconography of disease. Laser cut discs exist in two states: chromed and rusted, and agents of sterilisation (autoclaves and sterilisers) are tethered to medical cabinets 'contaminated' by language (synonyms for disease and for pain).

The project is conscious of the politics of exclusion within medical discourse, and itself provides limited access to text. The scale and height of the framed, index card myths make them unreadable, despite the provision of a magnifying glass; explanatory texts in the cabinets thwart analysis as they lose their numbering system and direct references; and animal specimens are only labeled by the diseases which they carry. Timelines are a device used to provide orientation and guidance, yet they often present a decontextualised chronology - the chosen inclusions often reflecting relationships of power. In this exhibition, the 'timeline' is in the form of a ruler, circumscribing 68 metres and including a biblical concordance of disease, literally running counter to a more conventional microbial history. The ruler measurements are indicated by a chordate species list, incrementally divided by microbial species in red. This is makes up one part of the encyclopaedic inventory of the exhibition that, in its visual complexity, creates a sense of disorientation. The system of cross-referencing necessitates an active (and physical) engagement with the layout of the exhibition in a search for linkages. Knowledge acquisition here is a discovery that requires participation.

Fritha Langerman is based at Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. The project was made possible by the generous sponsorship of the National Research Foundation, the National Arts Council, the Gordon Institute for the Creative and Performing Arts, and the University of Cape Town Research Committee.

The exhibition runs until March 2010 and is to be seen at the Iziko South African Museum.
25 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town.
Ph 021 481 3800
www.iziko.org.za