Annie Burrows: Gags, blades rings and things (A surgeon’s tools), Charcoal on paper

Our latest exhibition, Townscape, features works of art by local group, Example, and takes its inspiration from objects on display in the museum.

Burrows was drawn to the Museum’s collection of surgical instruments acquired from Queen Victoria Hospital, some of which were used and modified during World War II by the world-famous pioneering plastic surgeon, Archibald McIndoe. Burrows was fascinated by the stark juxtaposition of these hard, austere looking instruments and the soft, visceral reality of the bodies on which they performed. The mechanical extension of the surgeon’s hand and mind in repairing and creating was particularly intriguing. Burrows’ works capture the stark, practical beauty of these precision instruments.

eft to right: Doyen’s mouth gag, used to hold jaws apart during surgery inside the mouth; Oldfield’s skin graft spreading shovel, used in conjunction with a skin grafting knife to transport thin samples of skin