Stethoscope
2002
stethoscope, rubber tubing, stainless steel table
36"H x 96"W x 24"D
Stethoscope is a twenty-five foot long functional stethoscope. Viewers are invited to listen to each other’s hearts on either end of the table. Before the invention of the stethoscope, physicians would lay their heads directly on a patient’s chest to listen to the heart. In 1816, Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec (1781-1826) was inspired to invent the stethoscope by his desire by some accounts to preserve a well-endowed woman’s modesty, by other accounts to preserve his own modesty. This sculpture exaggerates the alienating nature of an object and explores the stethoscope as a visual metaphor for a social paradigm. Its maintained functionality questions standards in forms that do not necessarily relate to function.
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