Published
Transplant
Transplant, a long-term collaborative project with photographer Tim Wainwright, explores territory on the borders of art and anthropology, extending the sensory turn in ethnography in the direction of sound and investigating new relationships between sound and still image. Continuing Wynne’s pursuit of socially engaged sound arts practice and multi-channel installation, it began with a year-long residency at Harefield Hospital, a world-leading centre for heart and lung transplantation. The artists recorded and photographed patients, the devices they were attached to or had implanted, and the hospital environment, researching and developing ideas leading to multiple outcomes. Primary among these are a 24-channel sound/photography installation in which the photographs are the actual source of the sound, and a published book of essays and interviews containing a DVD.
Other outputs include a surround sound video (ITU, shown in UK, Ireland, Germany, Canada), an award-winning half-hour composed documentary (Hearts, Lungs and Minds, for BBC Radio 3), a multi-channel video/sound installation (Flow, at the Old Operating Theatre in London), and an 8-channel sound work (Part and Parcel, Kettles Yard and the Whitworth Art Gallery).
Collaborative project with the late Tim Wainwright (1954-2018)
A first look reveals content that is almost snap-the-book-shut disturbing, but persevere and you are rewarded with a beautiful human story. The transplant ward is revealed as a unique and compelling environment, with alien sights and sounds and heightened emotions countered by meditative routine and endless waiting.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Victoria Hume, Director of the UK Culture, Health & Wellbeing AllianceDepths and clamour; inside and outside
David Toop, author of Ocean of Sound and Haunted WeatherThe dance of Life
Charles Darwent, art critic for The Independent on SundayHeartbeat
Lesley Sharp, medical researcher and author of Strange HarvestWhy are you always so happy?
Marcia Farquhar, artistSound and the boundless body
Tom Rice, anthropologist and author of Hearing and the HospitalThe psychological journey of transplantation: a second chance
Claire Hallas, psychologistA patient’s perspective
Kate Dalziel, heart transplant recipientAngus Carlyle interviews the artists
John Wynne and Tim Wainwright interview Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub
Transplant and Life was an exhibition in the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. I worked with the late photographer Tim Wainwright to film, photograph and record organ transplant recipients, live donors, people on the waiting list for a transplant, and specialists in the field. We were asked to make work that would bring the patient voice into the medical museum, a space normally dominated by specimens, clinical hardware and medical heroes.
The exhibition was accompanied by a digital guide designed to enrich the visitor experience via QR codes throughout the exhibition and to provide access to images, sounds and information not directly on show in the museum.