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Sickle Cell exhibition at Gippsland

2 November 2005

An exhibition exploring human existence and the processes of disease is currently on show at the Switchback Gallery at Monash's Gippsland campus.

Sickle Cell features the work of Melbourne artist Scott Campbell. His new work is a sculptural installation that includes moulded blood cells, sickled red blood cells and large organic molecules.

On the walls of the gallery, haemoglobin, sickled blood cells and white blood cells cluster as they might under a microscope but are enormous, dwarfing the viewer.

Sickle cell anaemia is a genetically inherited disease predominantly found in the African community.

The 'terrible beauty' of disease processes has been an enduring theme in Campbell's work and is again present in this installation.

Campbell says Sickle Cell has evolved into a mediation of the relationship between science, nature and culture.

"My work refigures conventional modes of decorative art to reveal the disturbing power of amassing and grouping seemingly benign objects into configurations that suggest invasion, colonisation and the horror of infection," he says.

In the exhibition, Campbell connects drawing to the three-dimensional plane. The grouping of objects plays with form and structure and works to engage the viewer with the lustrous, shapely and larger-than-life installation.

Sickle Cell is on display until 10 November. The Switchback Gallery is open weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm.