Name: Expanded Anatomies: Flesh and Bones Opening Symposium
Start: 2026-03-21T14:00:00+08:00
End: 2026-03-21T18:15:00+08:00
Location: ArtScience Museum

Expanded Anatomies: Flesh and Bones Opening Symposium

𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗲𝘀: 𝗙𝗹𝗲𝘀𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘆𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘂𝗺
𝟮𝟭 𝗠𝗮𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 (𝗦𝗮𝘁), 𝟮𝗽𝗺 – 𝟲.𝟭𝟱𝗽𝗺
𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗺𝗮, 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝟰
𝗧𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻: $𝟭𝟬
What does anatomy help us understand about the human body, and what might it leave unseen?
Organised as the opening symposium for Flesh and Bones: The Art of Anatomy, Expanded Anatomies takes the exhibition as a point of departure to explore how knowledge of the body has been formed, taught and experienced in Singapore and the wider Southeast Asian region.
While Western anatomical traditions have strongly influenced how bodies are studied today, the symposium examines how these ideas are passed on and reworked through local pedagogies, ethical frameworks and visual practices. Across a keynote lecture and two in-depth sessions, the programme moves from the institutional conditions through which anatomy is taught and authorised, to artistic reflections on memory, vulnerability, care and lived experience — dimensions of the body that resist being fully measured or mapped.
Expanded Anatomies invites audiences to see anatomy as a human practice shaped by historical circumstances, cultural contexts and ways of seeing, alongside its scientific foundations. Bringing together medical educators, practitioners, artists and curators, the symposium considers how bodies continue to hold meaning beyond diagrams and classifications, and the systems of knowledge they support.
Speakers include 𝗗𝗿. 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲 𝗞𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗹𝗹 (Visiting Associate Professor, Programme in the History of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, L.A.), 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗪𝗲𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘂𝗻 (Clinical Teacher, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University), 𝗘𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗵𝘂𝗮 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗵 𝗬𝗶𝗻 (Head, Centre of Continuing Education, Singapore College of Traditional Chinese Medicine), 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘆𝘂𝗲 (Digital Education Technologist, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University), as well as artists 𝗪𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶 𝗬𝗮𝗻, 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗵𝗮𝗿𝘂 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗼𝘁𝗮, 𝗗𝗿. 𝗬𝗮𝗻𝘆𝘂𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗻 and 𝗪𝗼𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗼𝗮𝗸 𝗧𝗲𝗻𝗴.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄
2.00pm – 2.05pm
𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Host: 𝗭𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗮𝗼𝘅𝗶𝗻 (Senior Curator, Public Programmes, ArtScience Museum)
2.05pm – 2.10pm
𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝘀
Speaker: 𝗛𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗿 (Vice President, ArtScience Museum and Attractions, Marina Bay Sands)
2.10pm – 2.35pm
𝗞𝗲𝘆𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲: 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗹𝗲𝘀𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀
Speaker: 𝗗𝗿. 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲 𝗞𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗹𝗹 (Visiting Associate Professor, Programme in the History of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, L.A.)
In this opening keynote, Dr. Monique Kornell introduces the curatorial foundations of Flesh and Bones: The Art of Anatomy. Drawing on her work at the Getty Research Institute, she traces how anatomy has been studied and represented over time, at the intersections of art, science and education.
Rather than presenting anatomy as a settled body of knowledge, the lecture reveals how it has developed through specific institutions, visual traditions and ways of looking at the body. The keynote sets the conceptual ground for the symposium, opening up anatomy as a field that can be rethought and expanded across different cultural and institutional contexts.
2.35pm – 3.35pm
𝗦𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟭: 𝗜𝗻𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗕𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀
Speakers: 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗪𝗲𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘂𝗻 (Clinical Teacher, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University), 𝗘𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗵𝘂𝗮 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗵 𝗬𝗶𝗻 (Head, Centre of Continuing Education, Singapore College of Traditional Chinese Medicine) and 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘆𝘂𝗲 (Digital Education Technologist, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University)
This session examines how anatomical knowledge is inherited, authorised and shaped within medical and cultural contexts in Singapore. Moving beyond anatomy as a neutral scientific discipline, it considers how bodies come to be known through histories of medical education and visual representation.
Bringing together perspectives from biomedical ethics, medical illustration and Traditional Chinese Medicine, speakers reflect on how Western anatomical frameworks have been institutionalised while remaining entangled with other ways of apprehending the body through embodied practice and relational diagnosis. Their contributions invite reflection on anatomy as a human and ethical encounter, shaped by assumptions about learning and responsibility that continue to influence how bodies are taught, seen and valued.
3.35pm – 4pm
𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Q&A with Dr. Monique Kornell, Professor Pang Weng Sun, Eleanor Chua Chih Yin and Chen Mingyue, moderated by Zhang Baoxin
4pm – 4.15pm
𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸
4.15pm – 5.45pm
𝗦𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟮: 𝗔𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗺𝘆
Speakers: 𝗪𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶 𝗬𝗮𝗻 (artist), 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗵𝗮𝗿𝘂 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗼𝘁𝗮 (artist), 𝗗𝗿. 𝗬𝗮𝗻𝘆𝘂𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗻 (artist) and 𝗪𝗼𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗼𝗮𝗸 𝗧𝗲𝗻𝗴 (artist)
This session brings together contemporary artistic practices that reflect on the body beyond systems of classification. It opens with a speculative reflection on how scientific knowledge has been shaped by Enlightenment frameworks, inviting audiences to consider alternative ways of imagining the body and other possible scientific modernities.
The session then turns to works that approach the body as lived and felt. Across photography, installation and material-based practices, the body emerges as an archive of experience, holding traces and absences that cannot always be explained through anatomy alone. As the closing conversation of the symposium, it reflects on the limits of anatomical knowledge, and how bodies continue to generate meaning beyond the structures used to define them.
5.45pm – 6.15pm
𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀
Q&A with Wendi Yan, Chiharu Shiota, Dr. Yanyun Chen and Woong Soak Teng, moderated by Zhang Baoxin

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗙𝗹𝗲𝘀𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗺𝘆 (𝟮𝟭 𝗠𝗮𝗿 - 𝟭𝟲 𝗔𝘂𝗴 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲)
Flesh and Bones traces anatomy as a shared language of art and science, where the body becomes medicine, cosmos, and a vessel for contemplating life, transformation, and afterlife. Expanding beyond Western traditions of anatomical study, the exhibition brings into dialogue diverse cultural practices that have long shaped how bodies are cared for, depicted, and understood.
For centuries, the human body has been examined through medicine, art, and scientific investigation. In Renaissance Europe, printed anatomical atlases transformed emerging medical knowledge into images that reshaped how the body was studied and imagined through collaboration among anatomists, artists, and printmakers. Yet across the world, other systems—ranging from holistic healing to ritual, cosmology, and indigenous medical lineages—developed parallel ways of mapping the body, each grounded in its own philosophies of health, spirit, and interconnectedness.
Anatomy was central to artistic training in Europe, and artists played a pivotal role in circulating anatomical knowledge. But anatomical representation has never been the product of observation alone. At the intersection of art, science, and culture, visual languages of the body evolved to balance precision with interpretation, whether articulated through printed atlases, sculptural models, or culturally specific practices that understood the body not only as structure, but as energy, lineage, and living memory.
Flesh and Bones: The Art of Anatomy situates these histories within a broader global framework, examining anatomy as both scientific method and cultural construct—a space where knowledge, belief, and imagination converge, diverge, and co‑inform one another.