Iluá Hauck da Silva: Pathos Ocularis - The Beautiful and the Curious

Iluá Hauck da Silva, an artist and glassmaker specialising in works of anatomical and pathological symbolism, is the third ever ‘artist-in-residence’ attached to the British Optical Association Museum. During 2019 she produced an assortment of two-dimensional and three-dimensional works inspired in part by her own experience of dry eye, diplopia and photophobia.

Drawing inspiration from the Museum’s collections, as well as from medical, scientific, and historical research conducted in the College library, Iluá has set out to create a modern-day cabinet of curiosities dedicated to eyes, exploring the same aspects she previously explored in other organs: beauty, anatomy, pathology, and symbolism. As a glass artist, she inevitably chose to make glass eyes, thus establishing a visual and conceptual dialogue with the existing ones in the collection. Iluá has also drawn inspiration from elements of pre-scientific knowledge, such as the iconography of Saint Lucy, as well as aspects of the histories of optometry and ophthalmology in the work to be made – drawings, photographs, digital images, and glass objects. The results of her research are to be combined with facets of her own ocular medical history.