28 October 2005
An exhibition exploring human existence and the processes of disease is currently on show at the Switchback Gallery at Monash University's Gippsland campus.
Sickle Cell, on display until 10 November, 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 this 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.
Exhibition notes
What: Sickle Cell by Scott Campbell
Where: Switchback Gallery, Gippsland Centre for Art and Design, Monash University, Churchill
When: Until 10 November. Opening hours: weekdays from 9am to 5pm.
Who: Telephone +61 3 9902 6261 or visit the Switchback Gallery website
For further information, please contact exhibition coordinator Mark McDean on (03) 9902 6565 or Media Communications, on +61 3 9905 9314. | 
