Back to archives | Back to FOFA Gallery
OCTOBER 17 - NOVEMBER 11
Tagny Duff, Tissue Culture Point of View, 2008, video stills Cellular Memorabilia Click here for the Gallery Brochure Cellular Memorabilia by Tagny Duff (Assistant professor, Communication Studies, and graduate of the Studio Arts MFA program) features three works that utilize the tools and practices of tissue culture engineering to reflect upon the changing status and perception of bodies at the turn of the post-biological era. The Living Viral Tattoos (2008) is a series of four tissue samples of human breast tissue donated by an anonymous donor from elective breast reduction surgery. The samples are transfected with a biological virus, Lentivirus, and fixed with immunohistochemical stains to produce the appearance of bruises. Tissue Culture Point of View (2008) features a video installation that reverses the anthropocentric gaze of the microscope placing the gallery visitor in the role of the cellular tissue specimen. Cryobook Archives (2010) is a portable library of frozen human-animal viral tissue bound into the form of books. The work reflects on the history of early surgical practices in Europe that sought to extend and preserve the lifespan of human tissue through the practice of anthropodermic bibliopegy, the binding of books made from human cadavers. There is a longer duration that has to be accounted for when you are working with living systems, especially given the fact that you can cryo-preserve them for an extended period of time. There is the potential, for example, that the materials will outlive you. This happens with painting and other materials too, but with biological materials, you realize that there are different thresholds of time and duration. You realize that there are other scales of time that are imperceptible to the human eye or our human sense of time.
From Bio-Arts and the feminist politics of hands-on knowledge: An interview with Tagny Duff, by Kim Sawchuk in n.paradoxa Vol 28, 2011. Pp 68-80 http://www.ktpress.co.uk/nparadoxa-volume-details.asp?volumeid=28
Cellular memory is a speculative idea and folkloric notion that personal and ancestral history and memories can be stored in ones own body at the cellular level. It also, not coincidentally, refers to a memory card used to store information in cell phones. The desire to merge human biology with computational/electronic enabled devices and extend human lifespan and memory can be found in popular culture, science fiction and in laboratory science. The notion of cellular memorabilia, in this context, is reconfigured through an engagement with the process and tools of biotechnology to explore a complex array of desires and fears embedded in the search for increased lifespan and memory. Departing from the utopic vision of immortalized lifespan and unlimited memory capacity, the exhibition explores the idea of memory as unstable and constrained by the limitations of biotechnology and the fallibility of visualization tools.
Financial and in-kind support over various stages of development: Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Le Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC), CIAM, the Canada Council for the Arts, Concordia University, FOFA Gallery, Perth Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA), and Fremantle Arts Centre. All tissue culture works were researched and produced at SymbioticA, the Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts.
The artist acknowledges support for the following: Tissue culture engineering support and collaboration for Living Viral Tattoos: Dr. Stuart Hodgetts,Dr Ionat Zurr, Dr. Maria Grade Godinho, Dr. Jill Muhling, Oron Catts at SymbioticA, the Centre for Excellence in Biological Arts at The Department of Anatomy and Human Biology, University of Western Australia, with lab support from Greg Cozens and logistics Jane Coakley. Cryobook Archives: Engineering consultation and collaboration of display unit, David St.Onge. feasibility design, Jean-Michel Dussault and Benoit Allen. Construction of cryobook display unit by Alain Gagné Inc., Xavier Seaborn, and Amélie Trépanier. Donation of glass by Multiver, (Quebec). Technical support by Antonia Hernandez and Maya Ersan for video installation and Genevieve Ruest for construction of sculptural units.
EVENTS: VERNISSAGE: Cellular Memorabilia+ Memorial for a Stranger Thursday, October 20, 5-7PM FOFA GALLERY + ATRIUM
CELLULAR MEMORABILIA: ARTIST TALK + RECEPTION: Tagny Duff Friday, November 4, 5-7PM York Corridor Amphitheatre, EV 1-615 This room is located across the York Corridor Vitrines near the gallery entrance (same building as FOFA) |
|---|
© Concordia University