Skull Colour Chart: backgroundEdinburgh University owns a collection of around 1500 skulls which were mostly amassed during the 19th and early 20th century. As is the case in institutions across the world, the practice of collecting human skulls was largely motivated by investigations in to racial differences.
Two encounters with the skull collection initiated my idea of creating a ‘Skull Colour Chart’. The first was when I was asked to paint two 3d prints of skulls from the collection: those of Robert Burns and Lord Darnley. While painting Lord Darnley’s skull I was struck by its rich, deep rust colour, which I assumed was the result of the soil in which the body had been buried. The second encounter was when I was drawing in the skull room. Noticing the range of skull colours I began to consider whether the colours could say something new about the collection as a whole. I consulted Dr Linda Fibiger, Senior Lecturer in Human Osteoarchaeology at Edinburgh University, who confirmed that the colour of the skulls was related to the soil at the burial site as well as other environmental reasons such as proximity to coffin handles and other materials, burial practices and length of time buried. I started to consider how the colour of the skulls could say something about the history of an individual person and their remains after death. In geological maps soil and rock types are not defined by political borders. In fact these maps indicate how soil types connect countries across the world. Perhaps, then the colour of the skulls, if related to soil type, could be used as a counter argument to the colonial analysis of skulls as indicating racial difference and instead could talk about shared human existence and experience. |
Research methodology |
It was important to be as specific as possible when capturing the colour of the skulls and therefore their histories and so I felt I had to find as objective a research methodology as possible. The sensitive nature of the skull room, both ethically and environmentally, precludes the use of photography or colour mixing on site. Therefore I decided to use a tried and tested method used by archaeologists to identify soil colour: comparison of the subject with a Munsell Soil Colour Chart.
Individual skulls are varied in colour but I found that a good indication of the overall skull colour could be found by comparing the Munsell chart to the frontal bone of each skull, thus imposing a sampling rule to ensure, as much as possible, that all the skulls were treated in the same way. |
Artworks: painted clay tablets
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I wanted to create an artwork that could both hold the range of colours and conceptually frame the history of the skulls in the collection.
Inspired by archives, index and library cards, death tokens, soldiers’ ‘tags’, in other words objects which identify and substitute for a person or thing, I decided to create a series of tokens or tablets made of clay which could then be painted the colours of the skulls. Each tablet (4cm x 6cm) is stamped with the index number of the skull. The tablet shape is reminiscent of the windows in the Munsell Colour Chart and the form of the eye socket in a human skull. The materiality of clay alludes to bone and the slightly crude construction, full of small variations, helps to give a human aspect to the form. With thanks to all at the Anatomical Museum, University of Edinburgh, for their help and support. |