Boo Saville. Open Up, 2010. Biro on paper, 56 x 76 cm.
An x-ray of a Chinese woman’s feet after being bound. The Chinese practice of footbinding, popular since medieval times, was banned only in 1911. Young girls’ feet were wrapped in bandages to prevent them from growing longer than 4 inches. By age 3, four toes on each foot would break, often leading to infection, paralysis and atrophy. Some elderly Chinese women today still show disabilities.
Oscar Mason was also the photographer who documented this iconographic elephantiasis photograph.
The vast majority of his photographs were of cancer and a series documenting blood transfusion.
Dermatographia Urticaria is a rare condition in which the skin reacts to minor pressure and injuries, where even light scratches become raised welts. The immune system of the affected individual shows signs of extreme hypersensitivity, which may also explain why individuas who suffer from the disorder rarely ever fall ill. The welts can last from 30 minutes to over an hour. The initial cause of the disorder is unknown, and there is no permanent cure in existence.
This is my fourth year with the disorder.
Dermatographic Urticaria
Persistent pupillary membrane (PPM) is a condition of the eye involving remnants of a fetal membrane that persist as strands of tissue crossing the pupil.
So, I’m getting a blood test today to see if I have Thyroid disease.
I’m totally fine when I have to get surgical staples in my head, or have a metal hook go through my chin, or even when a shard of wood gets stuck an inch deep in my arm.
But blood tests?
Absolutely not.
My last ceramic professor let me go through the book she bought when she went there. I love anatomy but let’s just say I wouldn’t want to go alone to this museum..nope nope, I’d be found in a corner in a fettle position if I did.
Oh man, the Mutter Museum is the best place in the whole world! <3
