Surgical Works
Inviting viewers behind the scenes of the operating theatre, using sketches, photography, and painting to capture the precision, character, and individuality in the hands of those who heal.
How did this work begin?
A Radiographer can spend large amounts of time in Theatre, X-ray screening for everything from kidney stents to neurosurgery. In between cases one day I flipped over a blank X-ray request form and sketched, in biro, what I had been observing: surgery. Encouragement from the fascinated Neurosurgeon led to more sketches of his hands, then the hands of others. Theatre staff, upon seeing these hand sketches months later, could immediately identify the surgeon but didn’t know how.