Consultant puts his wife’s grey matter on display

The arts and sciences might not often merge in universities, but a medical consultant has combined them in a unique way for an exhibition at UCC’s school of medicine.

Conleth Murphy took the brave step of convincing his wife Maebh to undergo an MRI scan of her brain for the sake of art.

He printed the image — taken outside of clinical hours — onto paper and combined it with a watercolour drawing of her face, and layered it with another MRI image. The second of his works on display at UCC college of medicine’s Jennings Gallery shows a ‘colour map’ of the MRI with a red ink profile of Maebh’s face on acetate.

The artwork of the consultant oncologist at the nearby Bon Secours hospital, combines his professional work — which includes lecturing trainee doctors — with what he has learned himself in a life-drawing course at CIT Crawford College of Art & Design.

“The black-and-white one is called Work Maebh, it shows her serious side, and the red piece is Shoe Maebh, showing the increased cerebral activity in her brain whenever she enters a shoe shop — and she did approve the titles,” laughed Conleth.

“She has been a very understanding wife, having spent the last 10 years following me around the country to different hospitals, so this was probably the least arduous task I’ve asked her to do.”

Their one-year-old son Daire and daughter Juliet, 6, admired the work at last night’s opening, although Juliet did have questions about the ‘bean shape’ in the head of her mother, who is a second-level teacher.

It’s A Beautiful World features the work of almost 40 students, researchers, educators, and others associated with UCC’s college of medicine and health. As well as scientific imagery like motor neurons, kaleidoscopic cellular staining and lysozyme crystals, there are photographs, drawings, and paintings of nature and life as the naked eye usually sees it.

And it is not all visual art, as contributions from Cork University Maternity Hospital’s INFANT research centre include a symphony ‘composed’ by converting brain waves from a sleeping premature baby to sound. Another ‘living’ artwork is the photo by Tommie McCarthy, professor in the school of biochemistry, of a tattoo on the arm of a PhD student showing a transporter protein in a lipid membrane surrounded by water.

Other exhibitors have shown how they perceive a beautiful world, including general practice professor Colin Bradley’s photo of a young girl laughing, and medical student Alice Kirby’s photo of a man smiling at being able to hear for the first time in 20 years.

The free exhibition is open to the public at the Jennings Gallery, in UCC’s Brookfield health sciences complex, until March 27.