Mariana Carp is a science artist, ceramist and university lecturer at the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts from the Republic of Moldova.
“Different states of the human face during the pandemic - fatigue, exhaustion, pain and struggle for life” “We must embrace change, value life, freedom and the creativity it can produce”
Exhaustion, 2020, is a series of ceramics (red clay and white clay, pigments, and glaze) sculptures that depicts “different states of the human face during the pandemic - fatigue, exhaustion, pain and struggle for life”. Through red and white chamotte clay, glaze and pigment and a manual modelling technique, Mariana tells a story of the psychological transformation that one experienced through the pandemic, from happy, positive people into tired and exhausted ones. From fear to alertness, panic to disorientation and frustration over medicine’s failure to deal with the virus. For Mariana, the pandemic also brought light: “We must embrace change, value life, freedom and the creativity it can produce”.
Women of science have often used crocheting and clothes stitching to help understand complex scientific processes and facts. This was the case of pioneering French midwife Angélique du Coudray (1712-1794) who created a mannequin of textiles to teach trainee midwives on all steps of properly attending childbirth. At that time, female midwives were barred from medical studies. In 1759, du Coudray published a midwifery manual “Abrégé de l’art des accouchements” illustrating important manoeuvres to preserve the safety of women and their new-borns at the moment of birth.
Her trainees practiced various manipulations in mock births on the life-size obstetrical mannequin and were well prepared to handle dangerous situations, such as with twins and breech presentation. Du Coudray succeeded against the opposition of male surgeons when Louis XV recognized that she was instrumental to reducing chid mortality and commissioned her to travel across France to teach the art of midwifery. She taught thousands of students and even male medical doctors and became a symbol of French medical progress.
