Blood of My Blood – Photography Exhibition by Magda Kuca

📷 Blood of My Blood — A Solo Photography Exhibition by Magda Kuca

Magda Kuca brings a deeply personal and technically rich body of work to the Old Operating Theatre, a venue whose layered history of herbal apothecary and early surgical practice forms the perfect backdrop for this extraordinary exhibition.

🩸 About the Exhibition

Blood of My Blood is a multi-layered project exploring the profound intersection between personal narrative and scientific progress through experimental photographic practice. The work sits in dialogue with its surroundings, drawing connections between intimate human stories and the broader arc of medical history.

At the emotional heart of the project is Kuca's response to her mother's cancer journey. Using camera-less experimental photography, she captures their embracing bodies, expressing shared vulnerability — while the chemical marks and traces left on each image serve as a visual echo of chemotherapy's physical toll.

🔬 Techniques & Materials

The exhibition showcases a striking range of processes and materials:

• 🪟 Wet collodion portraits captured on glass, and limbs photographed on surgery-grade steel — with unvarnished surfaces deliberately left to decompose and tarnish, and intentional fractures repaired using silver
• 🎭 Still lifes of plague doctor masks, forging a symbolic link to the healing herbs once cultivated in the museum's own attic
• 🗄️ Contemporary works displayed within the museum's existing cabinets, woven alongside the main collection — evoking the aesthetic of vintage medical journals while reflecting on progress in treating injury and infectious disease

🏛️ Historical Context

The Old Operating Theatre was a space where surgeries were performed on women without anaesthetics or antiseptics, before live audiences of predominantly male medical students. Kuca's work reclaims the human stories behind those procedures — a powerful reminder that behind every medical breakthrough lies deeply personal suffering and resilience.

🕐 Public Opening Hours

📅 Thursday – Sunday, 10.30am – 5pm

🎟️ Exhibition entry is included in the museum's general admission ticket.