The Four Humors.
2016-2017. 8.75”h x 7.5”w x 4”d.
Lithography, Acrylic, Mahogany, Brass, Bronze, Linen, Self-fabricated mechanisms, Hardware.
My third automata, The Four Humors, is now finished. As the brass crank is rotated at the bottom of the shadowbox, a self-fabricated Geneva drive is engaged, rotating the paper doll's dresses with intermittent motion.
The four humors is an ancient medical theory in which all diseases, disabilities, emotions and behaviors are due to an excess or lack of bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. The fluids also have organs that relate to the fluids: blood=liver, phlegm=brain and lungs, black bile=gallbladder, and yellow bile=spleen.