Exhibitions – Hannah Maclure Centre

Hannah Maclure Centre

‘Proof’: Art + Forensics = A Groundbreaking Residency’

Beatrice Haines

Reception:
Wednesday 28th
August, 4pm – 6pm For UAD guests and Impact delegates

Open:
Thursday 29th August: 10am-5pm

Friday 30th August: 10am-5pm
7pm – 10.30pm: Special Event (Music, Drinks and Canapés)
*Crawl Inclusive to arrive at approx 10pm

Saturday 31st August: 12pm-4pm
Sunday 1st September: 12pm-4pm
Monday 2nd September: 10am-5pm

Location: Top Floor Student Centre, University of Abertay, 1-3 Bell Street, Dundee

Proof is an exhibition of prints and installations inspired by artist Beatrice Haines’ residency at the University of Abertay Dundee’s forensics lab. The residency was conceived and delivered by the Hannah Maclure Centre and Yuck ’n Yum, with the support of the School of Contemporary Sciences.

The exhibition aims to reveal the invisible, whether it be minute detail too small for the human eye to see or prints left from the surface of skin.

When Haines’ grandmother died in 2006, she became fascinated by the many cherished possessions left behind. Each object acquired a poignancy and meaning that had previously not existed. Although void of life, her grandmother’s house took on the role of a museum of personal antiquities and a proof of her existence. Haines wished to hold onto the memory of her grandmother by recording as many objects and traces as she could; scuffs on the carpet, tea stains, strands of hair left in her comb. Since this experience, her artwork has been heavily influenced by traces. Although the human is often absent in her work, the object left behind acts an anthropomorphic portrait that, like forensic evidence, tells its own story.

This obsessive need to record traces and seek meaning in them coincides with the very nature of forensics where every detail is important and rich with underlying narrative. In Abertay’s forensics lab, she approached her subject from a scientific point of view and learned how traces are recorded.

Using found objects from the local area and materials commonly used in the forensics lab, Haines wishes the viewer to share the same curiosity and intrigue she felt when watching a fingerprint magically appear under a UV light; that a secret has suddenly been exposed. Working with Dr.Kevin Farrugia, Abertay University, Haines learned how to best visualise minute pieces of evidence using dyes and fluorescent lighting which react with blood and grease from human skin. Artworks will appear to undergo a physical change before the viewer as a result of scientific alteration. The spectator will feel as though they are witnessing an experiment in the gallery space.

www.hannahmaclurecentre.abertay.ac.uk