Luka A.Marrun

For this project I replicated Baroque painting The Anatomy Lesson (today). I gathered and positioned 9 of my friends into the closest attempt at the swirling composition of the original painting by Rembrandt. The choice of medium being photograph depicts how humans have changed our methods of documentation of everyday life. How we went from giant oil paintings and drawings that took hours to make, to a digital cellphone camera that takes milliseconds to take a picture. I had to take the picture outside so there was enough space, but I used a digital software to make it resemble chiaroscuro, and to draw the phantasmagorical remains of a fashion that was worn back in 1632, (which we all agreed probably wasn’t too comfortable or convenient). They are all dressed in black but in very different clothing to what the men are originally wearing, which helps one understand the evolution of style of clothing that there’s been since. I also included more than simply white men on purpose, to show how nowadays more people can practice and study things that were being gatekept by them (white men). Nowadays, approximately 37% of 2 doctors are women and only 5% are black people, which means even though there’s been some change, the world still has a long way to go. Many aspects of our world have changed since the Baroque period, such as fashion, art styles and themes, technological advances, and societal rules and expectations. Although one thing I hope always remains is human’s curiosity and eagerness to understand, experiment and play with the world around us.

Starring: Students (L to R): Phoenix, Juliet, Kian, Alex, Dustin, Holden & Alex M

Dr. Nicolaes Tulp: Nita

Corpse: Shmem