Robbie Rowlands

STUART KOOP

Seeing a body with holes, the incision so precise, the removal of plasterboard section so clinical, the insides exposed. I guess Rowlands’ work is no less than ‘a flaying’ as one critic put it (while she beat a hasty retreat, the work too abject for her). Indeed, it did put in mind, Rembrandt’s portrait of Dr Tulp.

We have compared buildings to our bodies and spoken of the facade, the capital, and the pediment since Vitruvius. But Rowlands reveals the true insides, the viscera, the stuff between interior and exterior, what’s in a wall, or beneath the floorboards, like Dr Tulp raising tendons, muscles and... (log in or join to continue reading)