Doug Anderson

This collection of work comes from investigations into the relationships we people seem to have with ourselves as we constantly reappraise ourselves both physically and mentally. We are constantly looking for the mythical Fountain of Youth through an exhaustive assortment of body lotions, cosmetic surgery, implants, and the like. This uniquely human obsession is the starting point for this work.

 

Often, I develop my ideas from old illustrations or articles about peculiar medical procedures. The resulting images often provide a study of contrasts such as disturbing and humorous or attraction and repulsion. Like never before our time period offers the layperson an exciting though unsettling opportunity to witness strange new diseases, cloning, feats of genetic engineering, and body part reconstruction.  Newspaper and magazine articles, and television programs seem to turn science fiction into medical miracles. They reveal to us that many, once dangerous, invasive surgeries are now performed routinely while the doctor watches a video screen, that pig parts are used to heal hearts, and that a dead man’s hand can function on a living man’s wrist.