Marilene Oliver

Sutcliffe suffered severe headaches and, although unconfirmed, his premature death is thought to have been attributed to a brain aneurism. Headspace is based on a set of anonymised MRI scans of a brain aneurism. Oliver combined a number of different techniques to transform the scans into a small sculpture that invites the viewer to contemplate both the beauty of the scans and the mystery of death. Oliver painstakingly rendered these scans using a combination of tiny dots of ink and drill holes. The drill holes (which catch the light) depict the flow of blood in the brain and, thus, the ball of light, barely detectable at the centre of the sculpture is the aneurism. The tiny dots of ink across the rest of the scans shroud the aneurism in a dark cloud. This combination of points of light in darkness gives the work a seductive, celestial feel. Headspace presents the viewer with a cause of death but, rather than being gory and making us want to look away, it is shimmers and invites us to come closer, squinting to peer as far in as possible.