Dental Student Collaborates on Science Gallery Project
Anisha Gupta is a 4th year dental student at King’s College London Dental Institute. Prior to dental school, Anisha studied pharmacology and biomedical sciences, and worked within the beauty industry as a formulation advisor, skincare consultant and freelance makeup artist.
Outside of the classroom and the clinic, Anisha’s creative work combines science and art, to explore health and personal care in a cultural context. Anisha is particularly interested in how medical technologies and personal care products are used not only for healthcare and wellbeing but as a form of self-expression.
In 2015 Anisha undertook a summer research project with the Cultural Institute, to explore the scope of a potential science-arts programming season focused on the mouth and teeth for Science Gallery London. Coming to life in 2016, MOUTHY: into the Orifice, invites audiences to explore the hidden world inside the mouth and asks them to consider their relationship with it.
As part of this season, Anisha, along with classmate Carly Billing and Netherland-based dentist and artist Kuang-Yi Ku, explored how female sexual health and pleasure can be enhanced through oral and facial products, and designing prototypes of prophylaxis products based on dental dams, that aim to improve sexual and oral health practices for women and the LGBT+ community. The work was displayed at an installation at the Oral Emporium on Guy's Campus from 1st-4th November, coinciding with the start of Mouth Cancer Action Month, and the team presented their project at a series of interactive workshops held by Science Gallery London.
Says Dr Nigel Carter, OBE, CEO of the Oral Health Foundation: “As we approach the start of Mouth Cancer Action Month, this seems like the perfect opportunity for people to improve their knowledge and awareness of the role our mouth plays in sex and the important link between oral sex and the dramatic rise in mouth cancer cases through the spread of the human papillomavirus (HPV). This is a fantastic opportunity to bring younger people into the conversation around oral sex and mouth cancer in an interactive and imaginative way.”
Earlier this year, in collaboration with King’s College London’s Cultural Institute and artist/designer Joanna Brinton, Anisha curated a three-part series of arts and healthcare workshops titled ‘How Do You Create The Perfect Smile?’, exploring the role of dentistry and aesthetic medicine in the pursuit of perfection. The three workshops were held at Guy's campus and the Dental Institute and attended by a mixture of dental students, lecturers and art students, and the work was showcased at the Inigo Rooms Gallery in Somerset House as part of the Utopian Lab/Paths to Utopia 2016 program.
Anisha’s artwork has also been displayed at the Gordon Museum of Pathology’s annual Anatomy Art Exhibition, and she has collaborated on interdisciplinary science/arts/healthcare projects with fellow King’s dental students Rachel Loke (4th Year), Carly Billing (4th Year), Awais Ali (4th Year), and Dr Simon Hall (3rd Year).