In 2020 during the pandemic, Arts and Culture invited UK based artists to converse with academics from across Queen Mary as part of the Conversations project.
One of the conversations was between sculptor Janetka Plantun and Dr David Mills from the School of Dentistry, and it sparked a collaboration which had led to this residency at the Pathology Museum. The exploration and making phase is under way in 2023, and there will be a public exhibition of the works created which will be announced in 2024.
Specimens of teeth from the Pathology Museum
My residency and collaboration with Dr David Mills explores the inner world of teeth as sites of memory full of complex information. We're researching the museum’s historical ‘Diseases of Teeth’ collection; specimens nailed, wired and glued inside small glass jars filled with alcohol. They demonstrate the vulnerability of our teeth when inside our bodies, that once removed outlast every other part. We’re scanning each tooth using micro-tomography. This technique uses light to see inside the extracted teeth. An exhibition at the museum in early 2024 will illustrate how, paradoxically, it is the darkness and shadows that allow us to see inside the teeth; and inside ourselves. — Janetka Plantun - sculptor and artist
I'm working with sculptor Janetka Platun to look at the art of teeth, exploring diseased and otherwise pathological teeth from the Bart’s Pathology Museum. We are choosing specimens from the collection based on the information about them in the records, and also how interesting they appear to us with the eye of art and science. We are imaging the specimens using microscopy and x-ray micro-tomography. For the specimens where there is very little information in the records, we hope we can provide some useful information, and perhaps a very belated diagnosis, to aid students and researchers in the future. — Dr David Mills - Lecturer in Imaging and Calcified Tissue