N P James

Anatomy of the Body N P James

IntroductionThe Anatomy Series of 2001 was made in a quantity of eighty panels, taking three weeks to complete. The set considered the landscape of the human physical system. The panels were worked on flat, painting twelve at a time in rotation. They were laid out on an old framed work which also served as a container for the pool of colour washed over the textured surface. Two inch square wooden cubes were used to stack the panels in small towers to dry out. Various factors steered the series development: there was an initial colour plan, I thought about the load-bearing pressures on the body, of the complex interplay of its organs, nervous energy and circulation, and supporting frameworks of bone, muscle and soft tissue. The paintings formed a continuing conversation with the colour plan, with titles assigneed later to photographs of resulting works. The ambition has been to achieve the identity of the body not by literal description, but by equivalents found by chance in the passage of an abstract process. ContentsAorta, Arch of Atlas, Arm, Artery, Atrium, Bladder, Bones, Brain, Branches, Breast, Bronchi, Bulb, Buttocks, Canal, Capillary, Cartilage, Cavity, Cells, Cervix, Cleft, Column, Compartments, Cornea, Cuneiform, Diaphragm, Digits, Discs, Ducts, Duodenum, Ear, Esophagus, Fascia, Femur, Fibula, Finger, Fissure, Follicle, Foot, Gland, Gonadotropins, Heart, Heel, Hip, Intestine, Iris, Jaw, Knee, Knuckle, Labia, Labyrinth, Ligament, Metatarsal, Mouth, Neck, Nucleus, Orifice, Pelvis, Perineum, Philtrum, Pubis, Rectum, Retina, Rib Cage, Sacrum, Scalp, Shin, Shoulder, Skin, Skull, Spine, Spleen, Stomach, Teeth, Testicle, Thorax, Throat, Thumb, Tongue, Veins, Wrist.