ART x MEDICAL SCIENCE
In her studio practice, Taryn explores the intersection of fine art, medical science and the human body. She seeks refreshed investigations into notions of the good and the beautiful and, for her, that entry point is the human body; that ‘envelope’ rendering us equal: equally fragile, equally resilient.
Taryn works closely with patients from institutions such as Johns Hopkins Hospital and LSU Health Sciences Center to represent their journeys through conditions and/or experiences such as pregnancy, reconstructive surgery, neurodegenerative disease and cancer. She attends her subjects' surgeries and doctor's appointments, and maintains a close relationship with them as they are undergoing profound, life-changing transformations.
These clues are combined in a visual allegory for that which each individual subject experiences. Via reconstructed anatomical references, she balances the uncontrollable, unfamiliar qualities of our human bodies with the formal unity of careful rendering and strategic reconfiguration.
Additionally, Taryn creates abstract works inspired by the souvenirs that accompany patients' journeys -such as x-rays, ultrasounds, microscopic photographs, plates and screws, etc.
Taryn treats the body, its folds and fissures, the lush and sensual beauty as something unavoidably physical and yet artifactual —buried, distant, able to reveal a variety of ancient to current histories that are collective and intensely personal at once.