Radiography as Art: Laura Splan's "X-Ray Visions and Morphine Dreams"

Laura Splan is a mixed media artist based in New York City. Some of her works include a scarf knit with IV tubing which connects to the dorsal venous network of the wearer's hand, another is hooked yarn wall hangings of micro-organisms like anthrax and E. coli. In an attempt to produce something both beautiful and disturbing, her work depicts anatomical and biomedical imagery through craft mediums like crochet and knitting. She uses her own blood and skin in many of her paintings and photographs. The viewer experiences the duality in her work, comforted by the familiar image of a doily while simultaneously unsettled by the biological gore (Splan, 2009).

In 2005, Splan produced the work "X-Ray Visions and Morphine Dreams". The work consists of three backlit printed acrylic images. The images are actually digital collages created from found radiographs from the internet and medical books. The body parts taken from the radiographs make up domestic objets; a chair, pillows, and a table. Splan drew the title from the story of Bertha Roentgen, Wilhelm's wife, who supposedly developed hypochondria in her later years. According to the story, Wilhelm gave Bertha multiple injections of morphine daily to deal with the disease (Splan, 2005).

Splan's Slipcover (2005) depicts a side chair. The chair legs are each made from the tibia and fibula of a child. The seat cushion made of a barium and air filled colon. The side rails of the back are made from a section of the vertebral column. The back rails are made from the phlanges of the hand. The chair appears to be covered by a fabric slipcover.

Slipcover (Splan, 2005).

Splan's Pillow Shams (2005) is composed of pillow shams filled with barium and air filled colons. The pillow shams feature embroidered scalloped edges, mimicking the haustra of the large intestine .

Pillow Shams (Splan, 2005).

Splan's Tablecloth (2005) depicts a tabletop created from an elliptical cutout of a skull, supported by legs composed of the phalanges of the hand. The table is covered with a tablecloth with a decorative edging.

Tablecloth (Splan, 2005).

These images depict human anatomy covered in decorative fabric instead of flesh. The materials typically used to construct furniture are replaced with comparable biological tissues. Wood is replaced with long bones and thoracic vertebrae, a marble table top replaced with skull bones, and cotton stuffing replaced with a distended colon. 


The images at first glance, are black and white pictures of objects we see everyday, but a second glance reveals things that most see much less often. These images might be creepy to a layperson, but to a medical imaging professional, these images are familiar shapes beautifully rearranged.

You can see "X-Ray Visions and Morphine Dreams" and Splan's other works on her website.

Splan, L. (2005). X-Ray Visions and Morphine Dreams. Retrieved from http://www.laurasplan.com/projects/xray_visions.html

Splan, L. (2009). Laura Splan. Retrieved from http://www.laurasplan.com/index.html

Public Perspectives of Medical Imaging

Before the advent of medical imaging techniques, the skeleton was seen only in death. Bones therefore were undoubtedly a sign of death (McGrath, 2002, p. 111). When Roentgen radiographed his wife Bertha's hand, seeing the image of her own bones meant seeing a premonition of death (Dewing, 1962, p. 29). Early in 1896, a London reporter published a piece commenting on the indecency of looking at other people's bones, suggesting all radiographs should be burned (Kelves, 1997, p. 116). Looking through someones flesh meant predicting or even foreshadowing one's death. (Van Dijck, 2005, p. 94).

In the 80's Philip Niachros commissioned Andy Warhol to paint his portrait. Niachros, being Warhol's friend, likely knew that he wouldn't simply paint a picture. Warhol produced a set of silkscreen images made from the CT images of the Niachros' skull. Warhol's images present a strong contrast to the conservative portrait; an opaque facade of the individual being depicted. The CT images are produced through an "objective" technique, thus exposing a higher degree of "truth". The theme of the skull in this image propagates the historical association of skeletons and death. Warhol's portrait reminds the subject that they too, will die. By this time, medical images were beginning to be more prevalent in the media. The images were becoming closer to common in the public eye.

Andy Warhol, Philip's Skull, 1985 (Gagosian Gallery, 1999).

The perception of our interiors are shaped by many factors including medicine and media (Van Dijck, 2005, p.138). It is the technology in medicine that produces the images of our inner anatomies, but media delivers and construes these images. In the early days, newspapers published the shocking images of a hand radiograph. The manner in which the images were described connoted death. The public has been increasingly exposed to medical images to the extent that they are no longer surprising. Medical images are very much a part of mass media.

Take, for example, the case of 2-year old Lakshmi Tatma's sugery removing her conjoined twin. Daily Mail Online as well as many other newspapers published radiographs and CT reconstructions of the girl before and after surgery (Daily Mail Online, 2007). Medical images are used in the media as scientific proof.

Lakshmi Tatma. (Daily Mail Online, 2007)

The way we view medical images is influenced by popular culture, the medical system, personal experience, and political economy (Dumit, 2004). Are medical images still a premonition of death or has the meaning shifted to a sense of progress towards better health?

Daily Mail Online. (2007). First pictures reveal success of life-saving surgery on toddler with eight limbs. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-491757/First-pictures-reveal-success-life-saving-surgery-toddler-limbs.html

Dewing, S. B. (1962). Modern Radiology in Historical Perspective. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas Publisher

Dumit. J. (2004). Picturing personhood: Brain scans and biomedical identity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Gagosian Gallery. (1999). Andy Warhol: Philip's skull. Retrieved from http://i1.exhibit-e.com/gagosian/2cf9ac98.pdf

Kelves, B. (1997). Naked to the Bone: Medical Imaging in the Twentieth Century. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

McGrath, R. (2002). Seeing her sex: Medical archives and the female body. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.