Transorbital

• Year2014
• Dimensions
  Frame: 11cm x 15cm x 1.5cm / 4.3" x 5.9" x .6"
  Embossed panel: 7.5cm x 11.5cm / 3" x 4.5"
• MediaEmbossed pewter
• SOLD 
• Available-

I read a book a while back about Walter Freeman, the doctor who invented the transorbital lobotomy. I knew roughly what the procedure entailed, but I was shocked to find out how imprecise a technique it actually was, and at the absolutely cavalier way Dr Freeman performed the procedure on thousands of people, even teaching it to medical staff as if it were no more complicated than a vaccination. This piece shows the inserted ‘orbitoclast’ (modelled on an ice pick) which was tapped with a hammer to break through the thin bone at the back of the eye socket, and then rotated to sever connections in the frontal lobe. I etched deep cracks into the skull, doused it with patina solution to bring them out and polished it all up to a high shine. This piece is set in a simple black frame.