Art and Science Meet in the Macleay Museum’s Exhibition True to Form

Anatomical male closeup, copyright Tim Harland.

Arts Monday’s Jane Raffan takes a look at a new and fascinating exhibition of scientific models and chats with the show’s curator, Jan Brazier, Curator History Collections, and Dr Jude Philp, the Senior Curator at the Macleay Museum, Sydney University.

The Macleay’s latest exhibition, True to Form, reveals the place of these models in the history of scientific practice and teaching, as well as the remarkable artisanship of their manufacture.

Among the exhibits are a series of Ziegler wax embryology models, an Auzoux papier-mâché male clastic model (pictured), plaster anatomical models, wooden crystallography models and early plaster models of prehistoric animals. Some of these items are fascinatingly grisly, and many are stunningly beautiful objects which, taken out of context, would easily be mistaken for abstract sculpture.

Interview I  True to Form I

Interview II  True to Form II

Interview III  True to Form III

Program blog: https://eastsidefm.org/2013/04/arts-monday-8-april-2013/

More on the Macleay and the exhibition here: https://sydney.edu.au/museums/events_exhibitions/macleay_exhibitions.shtml