Exhibition: Gut Feelings: crafting gut-brain connections

Several months ago I was asked to be one of several guest artists contributing to the above exhibition. The organisers describe the event, on their invitation, as follows:

A group exhibition that explores the vital connection between our gut, our brain and our well being. Produced by contemporary artists Pat Pillai, Rita Pearce and Mary Hayman as a community art project this exhibition builds a collective body of work that is both scientifically grounded and deeply human. Visitors can expect a mix of large-scale installations, video, soft sculpture, and mixed-media pieces that use the familiar language of fibre and yarncraft to connect with scientific research, each other and ourselves.

I was supplied an array of scientific images to choose from and respond to. Some were black & white, others enhanced by the scientists themselves. I chose to combine the images below.

Using Photoshop the colour image was translated into black and white, the tones were inverted and the image rotated.

This allowed me to separate layers visually and decide how to produce each part.

40 x 30cm aluminium pieces were used as my print matrix.

Plate 1: Using a small drill – the equivalent of a Dremel or Ozito – with a fine jewellers bit inserted, and my source image in view, I moved across the surface of the plate incising the thicker lines around the central image.

Tips for drilling into a metal plate:

• Drill set-up is paramount. I have an Ozito brand which comes with a ‘pen’ style attachment and stand. A long hose with the pen attachment is screwed into the main drill, the stand is attached to the edge of the workspace and the hose is draped over this. This enables the pen tool to be held upright without the weight of the hose dragging it down and ensures the drill bit moves vertically across the metal and doesn’t drag.
• Practice first. When you’re new to this, pressure on the drill can be tricky. If you press too hard it can stutter across the surface and create huge burs. If you skim the surface the drill bit can skitter out of control.
• Speed across the surface. If you move relatively fast you can achieve fairly straight lines, too slow can cause the bit to jump and stutter. It takes a few minutes to get the measure of this.
• Wear safety glasses. The gouged out metal has to go somewhere. Some of it remains as burs on the side of the incised lines – and these hold ink beautifully – but some come free of the plate and potentially cause injury. Don’t lightly swipe your hand across the surface to feel how it’s working then rub your face or eyes. You don’t want tiny metal particles to cause damage.

Plate 2: I applied ball soft ground across the plate. Kozo fibre and embroidery thread were placed over this and the plate was put through the press.

The items pushed through the ground resist and were then removed before the plate was immersed in the etchant bath.

A trial print showed these items had given a light texture, but not sufficient for my purpose, so an etching needle was used to add slightly deeper and more obvious lines.

Surface design: Having the 2 base plates printed in black gave me the opportunity to add colour to the surface when depicting the gut neurons.

I chose several shapes from the source images, drew them the correct size and cut masks from acetate.

Colours were mixed and each was printed individually à la poupée and allowed to dry before continuing on. This kept the colours distinct and avoided muddying where they overlapped.

Claire Brach, The Language of Neuronal Morphology, etching & monoprint, 2025.
250gsm BFK Rives paper, Fine Art Inks & Charbonnel oil based inks.

Above you can see the print exhibited in the Broadhurst Gallery at Hazelhurst Art Centre alongside the original inspiration.

The artist statement reads:
Inspired by the scientific image Neurons in Human Colon Claire converted the image to black and white, inverted it, and combined layers of both original and modified versions. Her layered technique parallels the complexity and multi-layering used by scientists to create individually pseudocoloured nerve cell images.

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