APPENDAGES

Understanding the body, requires a conceptual model. Is the model we use currently sufficient? Traced ambigious shapes of internal organs are wrapped in/with intestine.

This jewellery series traced shapes from diagrams of the body in textbooks and online education websites. Shapes found often barely resembled their notations. These flat shapes were made into jewellery pieces to be worn externally. Where these decorative symbols are worn is not obvious. Slotting them into the body to find a home reflects slotting plastic organs into a dummy as a learning aid. In order to attach to the body the pieces are placed inside intestines and skin which dry and crust, turning the silver to black much like how jewellery discolours when in contact with the skin. Everyday we're incapable of seeing our gallbladder, we vaguely know what it does and where it is. It's out of sight out of mind. Every evening I'll check my largest organ, my skin, following up with a skincare routine just after brushing my exposed bones, my teeth. Our internal organs are understood as abstract concepts. We learn about our bodies through diagrams in textbooks, articles in magazines and backs of cigarette packets. Concepts of our internal organs rely on metaphor - you are a sponge, a void, a tube. These isolate ideas about how the environment affects our bodies but are these sufficient models? What if our organs were externalised like a colonoscopy bag? These intimate elements of our bodies would require the same in-depth understanding as skincare or dental hygiene. Would our understanding of our health, external environmental factors etc. be different if we carried our lungs underarm, visually seeing the effects of smoking. Would we decorate our large intestine, wear makeup on our oesophagus

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