<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

University of
HUDDERSFIELD

**University of Huddersfield Repository**

Pettican, Anneké

Anatomical tableaux/mixed realms

**Original Citation**

Pettican, Anneké (2010) Anatomical tableaux/mixed realms. Radar, 1 (1). pp. 24-25. ISSN 2049-4327

This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/12592/

The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided:

* The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy;

* A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and

* The content is not changed in any way.

For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: E.mailbox@hud.ac.uk.

http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/
anatomical
tableaux/
mixed
realms

Anneke Pettican

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

Anneke Pettican is an artist and Senior Lecturer in Digital Media Design. In 2007/8 she was the successful recipient of a practice-led Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) award to explore *Digital Doubles* using 3D body scanning and rapid prototyping.

She is co-director of the artistic collective Brass Art who exhibit internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include *Skyscraping*, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2008) and *Here and Elsewhere*, Globe City, Newcastle (2007). In 2008 Brass Art were selected for *ArtFutures*, Bloomberg Space, London and the *Jerwood Drawing Prize*. Brass Art were also Finalists in the Experimental Media Series, WPA, Washington, USA which accompanied the exhibition *When Absence Becomes Presence* (2008). Their work has been exhibited at VOLTA 5 Basel (2009), Preview Berlin (2008) and ZOO Art Fair, London (2005/6). They were recently commissioned to create new installations for *Tell it to the*

Trees at Croft Castle UK (2009) and are working towards a solo show at the International3, Manchester (2010). Recent presentations of their collaborative practice include the *Light Reading Series*, No.w.here, London with Coline Milliard (2009) and *Upgrade!* at Dundee Contemporary Arts for New Media Scotland (2008). In 2008 Anneke and Spencer Roberts exhibited the interactive installation *Tie me in a dream* at BANK ART as part of the Yokohama Triennale (JP).

In 2009 Brass Art were invited to become artist members of the Contemporary Art Society. Their work is featured on Visual and they are represented by the International 3. Future projects and collaborations include an international group exhibition exploring 'the shadow' at The Whitworth Gallery, UK in 2010, The Economy Project, A foundation Liverpool curated by Ticiana Correa and the Tatton Park Bienale, Flights of Fancy curated by Danielle Arnaud and Jordan Kaplan in 2012.

The kinetic installation *Moments of Death and Revival* (Brass Art, 2008) was informed by Anneke's AHRC funded project titled *Digital Doubles*. In this she examined the potential of capturing pose and gesture using 3D body scanning, 3D modelling and 3D rapid prototyping. Generous sponsorship was secured from a number of industry partners including Wicks and Wilson Ltd and 3D Systems. Anneke also sought specialist support from RapidForm RCA, Ogle Ltd and the materials workshop in the School of Art, Design and Architecture. An engagement with 'the self' and notions of feminine identity continue to inform her practice, as does an overarching fascination with the uncanny and a sense of wonder. Capturing 'the self' using this digital white-light based system proffered an opportunity to create something novel. Clare Lilley, Head Curator at Yorkshire Sculpture Park writes,

*"Nothing has made me realise the perceptual change between a sculpted figure and a 'real' print, formed from the coordinates of the artists' bodies, more than these semi transparent figures. They appear to be miniature facsimiles of the artists and at first sight make you blink in disbelief; more super-real than any Duane Hanson, Ron Mueck or waxwork sculpture."*

Digital Doubles also created an opportunity to mix the artist's body data with virtual data, through the process of virtual suturing.

This informed how the artists 'performed' in the scanning booth as each adopted imaginative poses that would fold into or around an 'imagined' prop or 'virtual' counterpart. Holding a pose for the duration of the scanning process was another important and integral aspect of the research, as was the interest to see how this temporal process would affect the resulting data and whether she could inscribe time into the finished artefacts.

The playful manipulation of the body's anatomical boundaries through this metamorphic process, coupled with the evolution of individual narrative tableaux, enabled the artist's portraits to shift between the real and the virtual. This mixing of realms is an important thread that continues to inform her working processes. The printed 3D artefacts became the main elements in Brass Art's expanded shadow play, in which the artists were presented as replicated and morphed hybrids engaging in a mythical dance macabre. In this installation, a travelling light produced the gigantic, shadowy transformations which have become an important motif in her collaborative work as Brass Art seek to occupy inaccessible spaces, shift between realms and play with alter egos. Louise Milne writing in 'The Broom of the System: On the Quarrel between Art and Narrative',

*"...in Brass Art's phantasmagorias, animated shadows have the quality of spatial singularities; they open another dimension inside the photographic world, a dream-like register"*

The installation *Moments of Death and Revival* featured in the catalogue *Skyscraping* with an Introduction by Clare Lilley and an essay titled 'Beside Themselves' by David Thorp. The work was reviewed in the Guardian and Design Week ran a short feature titled 'Figures of Expression'. The exhibition also featured in The Times' Top 5 Galleries and The Independent's Critics' Choice. The national interest generated by this exhibition resulted in a commission from Meadow Arts to create two new pieces for the year long exhibition *Tell it to the Trees* at the National Trust's Croft Castle, 2009 and the invitation to exhibit in an international show on 'the shadow', at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester 2010.

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /></figure>