Demonstration 50.15

Demonstration 50.15 is new work by Anna Lucas produced during a Wellcome Trust-funded residency in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford in 2007-9. It is a cool-hued portrait of the Universitys anatomy laboratory and follows the repetitive daily activities of the mortuary technician as he embalms and prepares bodies for medical students. The work reveals his quiet dignity and diligence within an environment more often recognised for scientific breakthroughs or ethical controversies. The absence of visible flesh – due to recent laws protecting the identity of the deceased – enables the film both to maintain and collapse the myth and mystery of the space.