Scientific or Sexual? – On Dissection Scenes
2026
Brass frame, colour print, aluminium composite
333 x 252 cm
The work Scientific or Sexual? – On Dissection Scenes explores the tradition of paintings depicting anatomical dissections through the gender roles assigned to the cadavers in these paintings. The work presents “a line” between scientific and sexual aspirations and playfully attempts to place historical dissection scenes along that line, based on the different motifs depicted in each image. The work employs image research techniques while also mapping the centuries-long tradition of dissection scenes at the intersection of scientific and artistic imagery.
By focusing on the gender of the cadaver, the work highlights how differently the tradition depicts gender. While cadavers depicted as male are often shown with motifs such as old age, visible viscera, neutral titles, and light that illuminates the body evenly, female cadavers are surrounded by very different motifs. These female cadavers are often depicted as young and beautiful, appearing more asleep than dead. They lie in a narrow beam of light that highlights their conventionally beautiful bodies, while the anatomist often gazes at them alone. The titles of the works often focus on the “dreamlike” experience of the anatomist.
The observations in the work align with Johanna Naukkarinen’s previous works, which have shown that bodies assigned as female are often represented as beautiful objects of the scientific gaze. As shown in this work, it seems to be almost impossible even for a dead female body to escape the role of the beautiful female spectacle, so familiar from depictions of living nudes in art history.
These observations in the work have been corroborated by research conducted by Neil Graham Holmstrom and Ludmila Jordanova.
The work in the exhibition Attractive Specimen, Galleria Mältinranta, 2026: