Calcium carbonate protopearl - Reproduced with kind permission from Rachel Armstrong, 2010I was thinking about the autopsy report on Henrietta Lacks (described in Rebecca Skloot's book 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks') and the grayish white tumors - like pearls that had grown in clusters throughout Henrietta's body. It was appropriate that the surgeon described the tumors as pearls, since pearls are formed by the intrusion of a parasite or organic matter into animal tissue. The animal (usually a mollusk) then begins a defense action, covering the intruding material with a secretion to protect the animal body. Cells from Henrietta's cancerous tumors were 'cultured' to create immortal cell lines for medical research. Pearls are 'cultured' by the intentional insertion of a foreign object into the tissue of an oyster or mollusk.
I wanted to make something out of this potent imagery which so vehemently proclaimed the existence of white substance within Henrietta's African American body. Whilst thinking about this I happened upon an photograph by Rachel Armstrong (above). It may have represented an eclipse floating languidly over Earth's terrain, a bright white light at the end of a dark tunnel, black holes, white holes and wormholes, a close-up of a fish eye or a cell and its nucleus, but was in fact a calcium carbonate proto-pearl she was growing in a laboratory. So, I had an image, but it still can't explain the impact that autopsy report had on me. I suppose that what I wanted to convey is how all those little white pearls had colonized her body and how it was her pain, grief and death that helped many people throughout the world. Information on Rachel Armstrong:
http://www.rachelarmstrong.me/
I wanted to make something out of this potent imagery which so vehemently proclaimed the existence of white substance within Henrietta's African American body. Whilst thinking about this I happened upon an photograph by Rachel Armstrong (above). It may have represented an eclipse floating languidly over Earth's terrain, a bright white light at the end of a dark tunnel, black holes, white holes and wormholes, a close-up of a fish eye or a cell and its nucleus, but was in fact a calcium carbonate proto-pearl she was growing in a laboratory. So, I had an image, but it still can't explain the impact that autopsy report had on me. I suppose that what I wanted to convey is how all those little white pearls had colonized her body and how it was her pain, grief and death that helped many people throughout the world. Information on Rachel Armstrong:
http://www.rachelarmstrong.me/
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