1+1=1 and Under the Blood: Commission for the Arts Council England's Collaborative Arts Unit and Papworth Hospital's Heart and Lung Transplant Unit

Commissioned by Arts Council England’s Collaborative Arts Unit with Papworth Hospital’s Heart and Lung Transplant Unit, Baseman worked directly with the world-renowned heart transplantation surgeon Francis Wells to produce two films that addressed questions of belief, mortality, science and nature. The works interrogate the mapping of the outer limits of physical endurance/survival and what it means to be human.

Selected through competitive process, Baseman was the first artist to have filmed these surgical procedures within the NHS on a continuous basis. Baseman recorded heart transplantation processes, the harvesting of organs and mitral valve replacement procedures to produce the films. He also interviewed the transplant recipients, and Wells.

Baseman recorded 75 hours of open-heart surgery and transplantation processes to produce ‘Under The Blood’. The 13 minute piece investigates faith, trust, religion, god, power, responsibility, authority, love, life, death and open-heart surgery. The intimate footage of surgery is underpinned by a soundtrack featuring a heavily edited sermon by evangelical minister Billy Graham.

‘1 + 1 = 1’ is a nine-minute film narrated by Patrick Wilkins, a heart and lung transplant recipient. As Wilkins relates his dreams and experiences, we watch an unidentifiable, semi-organic form rotate, move, grow and recede. The digital animation that visually drives the film is made from originally generated footage derived from various non-medical sources, that refer to X-rays and other medical scans.

The films were shown in a solo exhibition at Wysing Arts and the Royal Pump Rooms at Leamington Spa. ‘Under the Blood’ was also screened in the group exhibition ‘Wonderful: Visions of the Near Future’ at the Arnolfini, Bristol and Cornerhouse, Manchester (2004). ‘1 + 1 = 1’ and ‘Under the Blood’ were exhibited at the inaugural exhibition ‘Heart’, Wellcome Trust Galleries, London (2007).

• http://www.jordanbaseman.co.uk/