Sculpted glass heads mark World Cancer Day

‘Silent Stories’, a powerful sculptural artwork that explores the profound emotional experience of living with cancer, from diagnosis to treatment to life after the disease, is now on permanent display in Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries at the Science Museum in London. It was unveiled on World Cancer Day (4 February 2025).

Created by artist Katharine Dowson, the work features five glass busts cast from radiotherapy masks of patients undergoing treatment for head and neck cancer at Southend University Hospital in 2010. The plaster casts were used to create bespoke radiotherapy shell masks used to position the patients during their treatment. The sculpture is accompanied by an original soundscape of voices taken from participating individuals.

Katharine Dowson commented, “The glass creates the impression of suspended time, a snapshot memory of the moment. I use glass as a metaphor for the imperfection and fragility of life; the casts incidentally capture the patient’s portrait in a moment of vulnerability – echoes of which can be heard in the soundscape. To see through the glass encourages the viewer to ask questions about a person’s inner self, intensified by the intimate soundscape, where individuals describe their thoughts and feelings of then and now.”

Katharine Dowson studied sculpture at Camberwell College of Art before taking an MA at the Royal College of Art, where she won the 1900 Princess of Wales Scholarship. Her work is in numerous collections, including The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Microsoft Museum Seattle, The Wellcome Trust, The Arts Council Collection, and more.

Located in the Faith, Hope and Fear section of Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries, Silent Stories joins the museum’s art collection and other artworks on free public display, including bronze sculptures by Eleanor Crook and Marc Quinn, a ceramic pharmacy jar by Grayson Perry, a disease-transmission-inspired aerial installation by Studio Roso, and a photographic portrait series by Siân Davey.

Silent Stories is a part of the museum’s Collecting Experiences of Cancer project, which focuses on adding objects related to cancer, and the experience of living with it, to the collection.

Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries is located on Level 1 of the Science Museum at Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2DD.

Main image: Katherine Dowson with the ‘Silent Stories’ artwork. Photo © Science Museum Group.