Catherine Baker, Charred Hands
Catherine Baker, Charred Hands

As an artist-researcher, Baker's practice investigates the impact of illness and diagnosis on the individual, those they share their lives with, and what it means to be measured and mapped as a clinical experience that focuses on the biological body. Her current work responds to ideas of imperfection, straightness, repair, within the context of illness and disease explored by the artist through metaphors such as the ‘bow’- frequently used in quality wood-working to ‘mend’ fractures that appear in timbers. 

 

" Having spent time in clinical environments, working alongside researchers in medical and life science contexts, I have come to realise the fascination that we, as a species, have with measurement and how it is used to establish a baseline to measure change against. In fact, we seem somewhat obsessed with measurement, possibly as a means to compare, judge, understand, or just to make sense of ourselves and the world around us. Yet, what I have also come to understand it that not all things can be measured or even should be, perhaps we don’t always see the world around us in a way that allows us to appreciate its uniqueness, or permit us to appreciate that ‘so-called’ imperfection can hold value, as it does for some non-western cultures "

  • Many years ago, during a visit to Edinburgh Printmakers to give a talk about her art practice, as part of...

    Many years ago, during a visit to Edinburgh Printmakers to give a talk about her art practice, as part of the Ways of Seeing series organised by Judith Liddle,  Catherine made time to walk around the Royal Botanic Gardens before returning home. On this particular trip she came across a young tree specimen that brought about a significant shift in my practice interests and research activities. The tree, called the Wollemia Nobilis, has an amazingly rich history and at the time the Botanic Gardens had three specimens of this previously believed extinct tree. In 1994 David Noble, a New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Officer discovered a small group of large unknown trees within the 500,00 hectare Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains, outside of Sydney. The unknown species was later named the Wollemia Nobilis; the Wollemia Pine. Described as a tall tree with a slender crown when found in its native habitat, it has light green new growth in spring which darkens with age over the growing season. Although now found outside elsewhere in the world, its export was restricted so for a while only limited specimens were available to see outside of Australia.

     

    "Placing its rich history aside for a moment, what struck me about the specimens in the Botanics was that the youngest of the three trees had a notable curve to the trunk. The other two were upright and as such the curve appeared to show an unexpected growth pattern. At the time I was researching Scoliosis (curvature of the spine), in particular Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) and so the shape of the young Wollemia immediately aligned with the things I was reading and researching. I have since tracked the growth of this tree every year for the past 6yrs. It is now surrounded by further Wollemia Pine, all of which exhibit an upright growth whilst it remains interesting different despite living its nurtured environment."

     

  • The impact that the sapling had on Catherine's work remains and over the years the work has further developed to...

    The impact that the sapling had on Catherine's work remains and over the years the work has further developed to respond to ideas of imperfection, straightness, repair, often explored through metaphors such as the ‘bow’ which is frequently used in quality wood-working to ‘repair’ fractures and splits that appear in diseased timbers. This shift in her practice focused her research on the impact of illness and diagnosis on the individual and those they share their lives with and what it means to be measured and mapped as a clinical experience that focuses on the biological body.

     

    "A five-point scale, known as the Risser sign is used to classify skeletal maturity based on the full spinal and pelvic X-ray. In essence the X-rays can reveal the level of ossification and fusion with level five indicating that full maturity has been reached. Research suggests that the ‘Radiologic skeletal age of the wrist and digits can provide important information for maturity assessment in girls with AIS’, Wang et al (2009). The hands evident in much of my recent work all belong to young women diagnosed, currently or historically, with AIS. Their hands not only evidence their clinical importance but are the means through which we, as living beings, experience so much of the world around us through the immediacy of touch, and an act that is critical to the production of my work. My material investigations are explored through interdisciplinary working methods, many borrowed from the world of surgery and book-binding such as stitching and cauterisation, applied through various printmaking processes with wood used as a resounding metaphor for growth and conversely as a material to which things are yoked and forced to grow straight."

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  • A five-point scale, known as the Risser sign is used to classify skeletal maturity based on the full spinal and...
    A five-point scale, known as the Risser sign is used to classify skeletal maturity based on the full spinal and pelvic X-ray. In essence the X-rays can reveal the level of ossification and fusion with level five indicating that full maturity has been reached. Research suggests that the ‘Radiologic skeletal age of the wrist and digits can provide important information for maturity assessment in girls with AIS’, Wang et al (2009). The hands evident in much of my recent work all belong to young women diagnosed, currently or historically, with AIS. Their hands not only evidence their clinical importance but are the means through which we, as living beings, experience so much of the world around us through the immediacy of touch, and an act that is critical to the production of my work. My material investigations are explored through interdisciplinary working methods, many borrowed from the world of surgery and book-binding such as stitching and cauterisation, applied through various printmaking processes with wood used as a resounding metaphor for growth and conversely as a material to which things are yoked and forced to grow straight.
  • Dr Catherine Baker is an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Practice at Birmingham City University (BCU) in the UK. Based at...

    Dr Catherine Baker is an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Practice at Birmingham City University (BCU) in the UK. Based at Birmingham School of Art, she founded and co-leads the Material Encounters Research Cluster https://www.bcu.ac.uk/art/research/material-encounters. As an artist/researcher her early PhD work involved working with neuroscientists with whom she shared an interest in the neurobiology of the eye and the perceptual encounter. Her interest in this encounter as a phenomenological consideration remains although since 2010 her research has become more focused on the impact of art practice in clinical contexts. Baker is currently Principal Investigator leading an ambitious multi-partnered interdisciplinary project investigating environment and embodiment, and health/well-being in relation to Adolescent Scoliosis funded by the BSRF. She is currently leading a Special Section for world-leading journal Leonardo with Neuropsychologist Professor Iain Gilchrist on the process of interdisciplinary collaboration across the Arts, Sciences and Humanities.

     

    Concurrent to Catherine Baker’s exhibition in Gallery 2, until the 14th October a selection of artwork produced during a series of workshops will be displayed in the lower corridor of the Edinburgh Printmakers shop, with thanks to Katie Maciver; Jamielee Stevenson; Holly Smith; Philippa Lloyd; Melissa McDermott; Katie Hebden; Anna Maciver; and Martyna Milczarek. The BackBone research project aims to use art as a form of interdisciplinary research practice to measure the impact of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) on wellbeing and body perception. The research aims to contribute to a better understanding of alternative treatments towards improving quality of life in young people diagnosed with AIS. As part of the project a series of art workshops were delivered at the Botanics Cottage at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh. The art workshops explored the aesthetics of imperfection through material investigations that focus on the body as both an object and how it is experienced using the metaphor of tree images. By drawing parallels between the growth patterns of trees that, for complex and often unknown reasons, have grown unexpectedly the team explored questions, with the participants, around ideological notions of perfect growth through art making.