Karkinoma
Click on invite above to view images of the show
“What passes for scientific proof, while ultimately founded in methods and measures, is not immune to changing political and economic forces”
Devra Davis, The Secret History of the War on Cancer, 2007
thisisnotashop presents ‘Karkinoma’, an exhibition of new works by Kate Minnock. Minnock graduated from NCAD in 2003. Her current practice spans site-specific installation, digital & Fine Art print & drawing. This research-based exhibition was influenced by the work of Dr. Angel H. Roffo. His groundbreaking research was presented at the 2nd International Congress of Scientific and Social Campaign Against Cancer in 1936 to over 200 eminent cancer research specialists.
The title of the exhibition refers to the term first used by the Greek physician Hippocrates twenty-five hundred years ago to depict a tumor as a ‘muddled irritable cavity with spindly legs flaring out of control in all directions’. Fascinated with its evil animal-like appearance, he called it karkinoma, cancer, the Greek word for crab.
For this exhibition the artist has produced a limited edition artists book, using the format of a timeline, to highlight significant events relating to Roffo’s research. The book was created using original letterpress techniques at the National Print Museum. Printed as a blind deboss the deliberate, laborious yet meditative process of letterpress printing becomes an intrinsic element within the work.
The second part of this exhibition is a stop-gap animation created in conjunction with artist Vera Klute. Klute worked as a technical assistant for this piece. Her work merges drawing, video, stills, and photography into collage like animations. The animation is based on the detailed drawings A.H Roffo used to accompany his pioneering research into the carcinogenicity of solar radiation. The animation was back-projected onto the window of the gallery.
October 2008
View article about Karkinoma from The Visual Artists News-sheet (VAN).
Click here to view the images.
Click here to view the book.
Click here to view the animation.