Well I have actually made an object related to the collection, well two and I am planning a series.

Here is my thinking.

To see details of the tissue requires use of a microscope, which means that field of view will always be a circle. There is also something graphically satisfying about a circle, it’s completion I suppose. It’s also a fundamental shape, found naturally all over the place, from planets to bacteria.

An interpretation of gloopy yellow endometrial glands are on the above canvas, the image below focuses on the intertwining of maternal and embryonic tissue as the placenta forms. This embryo was conceived about 12 weeks ago and measures 55mm from the top of it’s head to the base of it’s spine. This measurement is labelled Crown to Rump, CR for short.

 

 

This prebirth connection between mother and baby, this is what I am especially interested in. My experience is that it is both physical and psychological. That is as soon as you know that you are pregnant you almost automatically build up a projected idea of the child and of your relationship with the child, even when that child is no more than a few millimeters long. It’s one of the reasons why miscarriage is so devastating.

On the scientific side, we still do not fully understand how the mother tolerates the presence of the baby.  According to traditional theory the mothers immune system should detect the baby as ‘foreign’ and initiate a process of rejection. Fortunately for us , it doesn’t.