Millett’s Exhibit Highlighted in Sculpture Magazine

March 4 , 2005

Cristin Millett, assistant professor of art, had her installation, Teatro Anatomico, reviewed by Gina Murtaugh and published in the March issue of Sculpture magazine. Teatro Anatomico is currently part of Bodies in Crisis at ATHICA in Athens, Ga., until March 6, 2005. It will then go to the Esther Klein Art Gallery in Philadelphia for a solo show entitled Art in Science XX: Cristin Millett - Teatro Anatomico from March 11-April 29, 2005. In May it will be in another solo show, Solos 2005, at the Arlington Arts Center in Va.

Teatro Anatomico was created during Millett’s three month residency in early 2004 at Sculpture Space in Utica, N.Y., and was also funded in part by a College of Arts and Architecture faculty research grant. This installation is the outcome of her research on anatomy theaters in Italy, England and the United States, conducted primarily in the last two years. It is constructed of three concentric ellipses, 8’ in height and 19’ x 22’ in diameter. The supporting structure is covered with 49 stretched sheer chiffon panels. The transparency of these materials permits the voyeur (or viewer) to peer through the skin of the walls. At the center of the installation, a chandelier lights up the interior space. Inside the inner ellipse is a steel exam table with a cast translucent rubber top. Projected on the tabletop is a video of a female body that intermittently is operated on—the procedure: an abdominal hysterectomy. As the viewer stands at the foot of the exam table, his face is captured by a camera and streamed live onto the body. Millett intends that her audience will experience the uncomfortable awareness that they are simultaneously “viewing” and being “viewed.”

Contact: Kate Hoffman, kah39@psu.edu or 814.863.2104