Portfolio: Sculpture Studio

Rachael Lashof

Project 3- Site and Installation

For this project, I am again exploring how scientific ideas can be shown artistically. It is tradition that medical abnormalities become displayed preserved in formaldehyde. Medical colleges around the world boast collections of oddities similar to “Cabinets of Curiosity,” - an idea first presented by Ole Worm in the 17th century. I have explored these issues using the frog Rana pipiens which has been known to experience severe mutations of limbs, eyes, and head when exposed to methoprenic acid.

The chemical methoprene is commonly used by industrial chemical producers and dumped into runoff from their plants. This chemical functions to prevent misquito larvae from metamorphosizing into the adult phase, thus preventing spread of disease. However, when methoprene is exposed to UV radiation, it converts to methoprenic acid which can cause severe mutations in many freshwater organisms, especially amphibians. In order to discover that methoprenic acid was in fact what was causing these defects, scientists literally had to recreate the abnormal frogs.

For this project, I proposed to create a 'Cabinet of Abnormalities.' By adding plaster molds of organisms with severe abnormalities that may or may not exist in the real world, I would suggest to my viewers that these oddities can be created and are something desired. The plaster molds would not be realistic, but obviously created and sculpted by a human hand.