“Moai (Easter Island statues) Brain Dissection”

Artist: Mona Abdollahi

Abstract

Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is famous for its monumental statues, called moai, created between the 13th and 15th centuries.

This surrealistic piece of work is meant to convey that the uniqueness of humans in nature is sourced from their higher-level cognition. For this reason, the brain structure and function need to be studied extensively.

In this work, the Rapa Nui is a metaphor for the human umwelt, the world as it "can" be experienced by humans. Rapanui people believed that the statues have the magical power of protecting the villages. Thus, the Rapa Nui people is a metaphor for the vulnerability of human. Moai symbolizes the importance of the advanced brain of humans as moais have giant heads and small torsos. Also, moais in Easter Island face the ocean (a metaphor for the vast unknown), implying that humans need to understand the complicated brain functions to surpass in the environment in spite of their weaknesses. The brain dissection set symbolizes today's knowledge of neuroscience as a tool for achieving this goal. This piece of work also carries a hint of a sense of humour by bringing the past to the present and by highlighting the contrast between the idea of primitive and modern humans about the source of power in nature.

The unstained clay was used for the structure of moais because it resembles the natural colour and hardness of real moais made out of volcanic ash. The brains are made of playdough to show the mushy structure of real brains. Yellow is used to highlight the contrast between two different materials.