Examination, Laura Magnusson
Examination is a handcrafted sexual assault evidence kit, cross-sectioned into six parts and embedded in clear resin, resembling ice. The plates are displayed on white plinths, separated so viewers can examine them from multiple angles. The cut-up kit reveals its contents: heaps of sand, sliced fragments of a comb, a broken medical swab, and disrupted papers and envelopes. Seaweed is interspersed throughout. The water-damaged papers are clumped, text illegible, forming irregular shapes that resemble coral formations. Photography by Scott Lee
Title: Examination
Artist: Laura Magnusson
Date: 2023
Medium/Materials: Resin sculpture
Dimensions: 6 individual plates, 25 cm x 25 cm x 5 cm each; Installation on plinths 45 cm x 122 cm x 548 cm
Form/Genre: Sculpture
Key Terms/Subject/Tags: Medical instruments; Clinical encounter; Patient experience
Artist Statement:
Examination (a sculpture of a sexual assault evidence kit) forms the impact statement that Laura Magnusson was not permitted to give before the law. In sexual violence cases, legal and healthcare frameworks operate together, shaping how traumatic effects are documented and witnessed. From issuing a police statement to undergoing a forensic examination to testifying, she was required to compartmentalize herself repeatedly to fit the system’s terms. The pursuit of factual truth actively excluded her felt knowledge.
Examination explores the visceral, objectifying experience of a forensic examination. The hand-built sexual assault evidence kit is cross-sectioned into six parts, each embedded in clear resin. The nurses, who had never administered a rape kit before, followed an instructional manual as they swabbed, plucked, and documented, turning Magnusson’s body into a training ground. The procedure lasted hours. In the end, Crown prosecutors neglected to enter the kit into evidence.
The work engages with two themes: “Reclaiming the Patient Narrative,” expressing survivor experience beyond institutional accounts; and “Structures and Systems,” critiquing how interconnected frameworks of care and justice can exacerbate trauma and fail to accommodate the fullness of traumatic experience.
Cultural Context / Story Behind the Work:
Examination was created from Magnusson’s experience undergoing a forensic examination after a sexual assault, administered by clinicians unfamiliar with the process. The work seeks to archive the objectification of this experience and the systemic failure of healthcare and legal systems, as her kit was never entered into evidence and remains unprocessed. Its form—cross-sectioned and embedded in resin—echoes the dissection-like scrutiny of the body and preserves a material record of both personal and structural impacts.
Rights for this Image:
This digital image is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. You are free to share it for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit the artist.
Learn More:
Instagram: @laura.k.magnusson