2002
stethoscope, rubber tubing, steel table
table dimensions: 36 H × 96 W × 24 D in (91.44 H × 244 W × 60.96 D cm)
Stethoscope is a twenty-five foot long functional stethoscope. Viewers are invited to listen to each other's hearts from 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 was inspired to invent the stethoscope by his desire, by some accounts, to preserve a "well-endowed" woman's modesty, and by other accounts, to preserve his own. Laennec’s solution to this socially awkward moment was to roll up a sheet of paper to create his first iteration of the instrument. The stethoscope itself embodies a social paradigm—a prescribed comfortable distance between doctor and patient, male and female.
Stethoscope is a twenty-five foot long functional stethoscope. Viewers are invited to listen to each other's hearts from 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 was inspired to invent the stethoscope by his desire, by some accounts, to preserve a "well-endowed" woman's modesty, and by other accounts, to preserve his own. Laennec’s solution to this socially awkward moment was to roll up a sheet of paper to create his first iteration of the instrument. The stethoscope itself embodies a social paradigm—a prescribed comfortable distance between doctor and patient, male and female.
...Laura Splan transforms our human temporality into both comforting and unsettling art. It’s magical, heart-stopping...
Exhibitions include Nicolaysen Art Museum, Richmond Art Center
