PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Perfect Vessels, a new exhibition of 22 photographs by Los Angeles-based artist David Orr, is on view at The Mütter Museum from July 15, 2016 — January 5, 2017. Completed between 2014 and 2016, the work is inspired and in response to the preeminent museum of medical history’s collection of human skulls.

In Perfect Vessels, Orr explores aesthetic and cultural ideals of perfection and symmetry. By photographing individual skulls head-on, then mirroring one side, he creates a perfectly balanced memento mori. Each skull has a unique surface texture, which, after Orr’s transformation, forms areas of abstraction, like Rorschach’s images. Evocative shapes are often located in areas (including the “third eye” and the “aperture of Brahman” at the top of the head) considered auspicious pathways to higher consciousness throughout centuries of Eastern thought. The works, dye-infused into highly reflective aluminum discs, are as much objects as photographs.

“As human beings we find symmetry pleasing because we are, ourselves, symmetrical, though not perfectly so,” says Orr. “Studies show that we perceive more symmetrical faces as more attractive, and examples of symmetry abound in art, architecture and design. The word vessel has many meanings. It can mean a container, a craft one travels in, a conduit through which powerful energy manifests itself, a utilitarian form that can be admired both as artifact and art.”

Orr’s work is drawn from the Museum’s Hyrtl Skull Collection, 139 human skulls acquired from Viennese anatomist Joseph Hyrtl (1810-1894) in 1874. Hyrtl’s aim in collecting and studying the skulls was to show that cranial anatomy varied widely in the Caucasian population of Europe. The history of many of these skulls in The Mütter Museum collection is known, and include where each skull came from, the life the owner lived, and how they died. Orr photographed each skull on-site at The Mütter Museum.

“Knowing each skull’s history means each work represents a specific life lived,” says Orr. “I’m especially excited to be showing them here, where you can go down the hall and see the source.” He found the range of shapes in the Hyrtl skulls – which were used to debunk the pseudoscience of phrenology - compelling. “No matter how dramatic, once variations between left and right are repeated, they vanish. I especially like the idea that by repeating ‘mistakes,’ I’m getting closer to ‘perfection.’”

“Orr’s images of skulls draw viewers inside as if they were exploring a cave and finding strange formations and compelling passages,” says Robert D. Hicks, PhD, Director of The Mütter Museum and Historical Medical Library. “He has created an extraordinary new way to look at our bodies.”

Perfect Vessels will be on view in the Thomson Gallery at The Mütter Museum from July 15, 2016, through January 5, 2017.

David Orr is a visual artist based in California. His work has been shown internationally in shows juried by representatives from the International Center for Photography, the Lucie Awards, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, The New York Times, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. His work is in public collections among such artists as Ansel Adams, John Baldessari, Jim Dine, David Hockney, The Brothers Quay, Edward Weston, and Joel-Peter Witkin. David has presented talks on his work at CSU Los Angeles, Death Salon, The Director’s Guild of America, Dublintellectual, Parsons School of Design/The New School, Reed College, and UCLA. Born in Manhattan and raised on the East Coast, David currently lives and works in Los Angeles.