The New York Times Asks "Why Shouldn't Prosthetics Be Works of Art"
Posted Sunday December 01 2013 at 7:16 pm.
Used tags: art, news
The New York Times - November 1, 2013 - "Far Out on a Limb" by Deirdre Dolan - Photographs by Nadav Kander
Sophie de Oliveira Barata works out of a bright white, semidisheveled northwest London studio surrounded by feet and fingers, legs leaning against walls and hands that look real enough to shake. With a background in art and special-effects makeup, she worked for eight years for a prosthetics manufacturer before deciding to become a creator of bespoke limbs. "It meant I could use my creative skills and do something massively rewarding," she said, dropping an oddly appealing man's foot in my lap. "Making an alternative limb is like entering a child's imagination and playing with their alter ego," she said. "You're trying to find the essence of the person." In 2011, de Oliveira Barata started the Alternative Limb Project and soon found interested clients. She created one leg with a stereo embedded in it, another with removable muscles and a third, among others, that housed minidrawers. Recently she began collaborating with artists skilled in animatronics, 3-D printing, metalwork and carbon fiber. "After losing a limb, a person isn't the same," de Oliveira Barata said. "So this is a form of expression, an empowerment, a celebration. It's their choice of how to complete their body — whether that means having a realistic match or something from an unexplored imagination."
Visit The New York Times article to view more of de Oliveira Barata's creations and read about the amputees they were created for.
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