VCUQatar and WCM-Q Students Explore the Art and Medicine Intersection

The exhibition showcased a collection of works created by six students from each college, utilizing a range of materials, methods and media, from laser-cut works based on medical scans, to photographs that examined the landscape as a metaphor for neurological conditions, and kinetic sculptures that question our perception of what is mental and what is physical.

The artworks and the exhibition were the result of a semester-long collaboration between VCUQatar and WCM-Q that explored the many direct and abstract links that exist between art and medicine. An exhibition catalogue and documentary film about the project will be published shortly.

A learning laboratory that was set up by the researchers provided the art students with new understandings, materials and tools to further develop their artistic practice, and which allowed the medical students to rethink medical decision-making and patient care.

The laboratory consisted of a series of workshops, seminars and lectures that investigated how each discipline solves problems, develops expertise, and utilizes creativity, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation to create new knowledge.

VCUQatar student Emelina Soares worked with WCM-Q student Yanal Shaheen to create a sculpture that explores the fragile nature of human skin.

“At first it was challenging to pursue a project with a medical student, since both our thoughts have complex directions in regards to rationalizing a final outcome,” Soares said.  

“The medical students are trained to think structurally in order to define circumstances, while we emphasize on an imaginative and conceptual approach to the world. However, the course materials gave us both the opportunity to encounter both disciplines and discover a common ground to realize our final work.

“One of my main interests is the depiction of death in religious art, which has a fairly clear link to medicine and its study of human anatomy. This common interest really helped Yanal and I to develop our sculpture.”

The research project was the product of collaboration and support from WCM-Q, VCUQatar, Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar Science & Technology Park, Hamad Bin Khalifa Student Center, and Qatar Robotics Institute of Development.

WCM-Q’s Student Artists were:

Mu Ji Hwang

Farah Al Sayyed

Faryal Malick

Rebal Turjoman

Eman Mosleh

Yanal Shaheen

VCUQatar’s Student Artists were:

Noor Al-Thani

Habeeb Abu-Futtaim

Abdul Rahman

Mohammad Jawad

Amelie Beicken

Emelina Soares