UNIVERSAL TOOLBOX OF THE FLESH
Title: Universal Toolbox of the Flesh
Date: 2017 Exhibition: The Rise of Bio-Society
Curator: Melentie Pandilovski
Gallery: Riddoch Gallery, Mt Gambier, South Australia
Artwork Credits: Artist: Trish Adams, Scientific documentary footage c/o Dr V.Nurcombe, School of Biomedical Science, The University of Queensland.
Artwork Description: Video, 5:06min.
Trish Adams has collaborated with scientists in order to ‘change the fates’ of adult stem cells from her blood to beating cardiac cells ‘in vitro’. Contemporary developments in adult stem cell research are opening the door for bodily augmentation through modified organs and limbs which have been grown in the laboratory using cells extracted from our own bodies; introducing a new phase in the structure of our physical selves where corporeality may be scientifically augmented by discoveries from the laboratory. The artwork: ‘Universal Toolbox of the Flesh’ quizzically reflects on the implications of modifying the human body through cutting-edge biotechnology and irreverently juxtaposes the high-end laboratory processes with analogue methods used to modify flesh – in this instance, mincing meat with a hand mincer that belonged to Adams’ grandmother!
