Art hangs as science lure

The culmination of artist Aya Ben Ron's six-month residence at the Wellcome Trust in London has been hanging dramatically in the main atrium of the building throughout the summer. The 25-metre-long " Hanging " glistens with kaleidoscopic, colourful images and patterns but on closer scrutiny holds a darker message. The colourful images are revealed to comprise images of various human diseases and deformities on a journey from birth on the ground floor to death on the highest floor. The images were all gleaned from the vast collection of biomedical textbooks held in the Trust's collections. The aim of the residence programme is to provide artists with easy access to the Trust's material in the hope that it may help inspire work which will encourage innovative interplay between science and art and ultimately create greater interest by the public in issues in biomedicine. " At first it is easy to be seduced by the candy colours and pacifying patterns, " says Aya. " We try to create normal lives for ourselves, to cut out diseases and abnormalities. But what is normal? " , she asks.