Art History Festival | Art and Medicine in Conversation: Eleanor Crook at the Science Museum

Bronze, waxwork and glass sculpture by Eleanor Crook entitled Santa Medicina. Commissioned by the Science Museum for the Faith, Hope and Fear gallery. This figure is part surgeon part saint, combining objects and imagery from different faiths and medical practices. The bronze healer shelters a fragile waxwork figure in its skirts, encased in glass and surrounded by candles.

Eleanor Crook’s new sculpture Santa Medicina was revealed as part of the Science Museum’s new Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries in 2019. Alongside four other major commissions from international artists, Crook’s work makes visible crucial connections between art and science, art and medicine.

Join Crook in conversation with Katy Barrett, Curator of Art Collections at the Science Museum, discussing the concept, making process, inspirations and intentions behind the sculpture, as well as its place in Crook’s wider work. Two years on from the gallery’s opening, both speakers will reflect on how our understanding of medicine have changed, and what is special about bringing art and medicine together.

This talk is delivered by the Science Museum.