Memento Vivere
2022
Marble souvenir figures, plastic anatomical toy parts, qlue
Each piece approximately 24cm x 8cm x 8cm
Kuopio Art Museum Collection (2nd piece of work)
The series of reworked souvenir statues is inspired by the tradition of anatomical Venus wax figures. It explores the connections between the images from the history of medicine and images from the history of art.
The anatomical Venus wax figures were first made in Italy during the 18th century. These figures were used for teaching anatomy to the general public and were moulded into the form inspired by the portrayal of Venus in the visual arts. They were beautiful, passive and placed to lie on silk. Their beauty was meant to distract people from thinking about death while learning anatomy.
The wax Venuses were also memento mori items, so the starting point of these reworked souvenir statues was to make them into memento mori icons. Eventually they turned more into gentle memento vivere icons to mirror more life than death.