The Heart – Mathematics and Emotional Processing.
Just in time for valentine’s day – you might think when seeing an artwork representing the human heart. All over the web you can find valentine’s day related anatomical illustrations of the “real” human heart. However, this heart has nothing to do with love. This work of art tells us a very different story; a story of illness, disease, and mathematical equations.
The US artist Enrique Castrejon created this collage when his father suffered from a heart attack and underwent a double by-pass surgery. Enrique says the creation of this collage helped him in processing his anxiety he experienced with his father’s ill-health. Enrique’s experience might show us how the understanding and dealing with anatomical structures is not only meant for the medic or other health professional, but also how it can help the diseased and their families and friends in understanding and finding refuge in this understanding and trying to learn the structures underlying ill-health.
Enrique Castrejon named this work “Measured Heart in Inches”; it is part of the “Linear Dissection” series. In these works he sections the image into geometrical shapes and measures the distances between points. By this he wants to expose the “invisible mathematical language found in everything.”
Enrique states on his Flickr page:
“I challenge our perceptions of what is real, forcing us to think critically about information that is constantly bombarding our everyday lives through images selected in directed advertisements, pop-culture sources, editorials and news stories found in printed and online media.”