Show image by Jared Vaughan Davis.
"EmBodied"
a virtual & pop-up exhibit
Sideshow Gallery (NYC)
March 2017
a virtual & pop-up exhibit
Sideshow Gallery (NYC)
March 2017
As humans we have an instinctual desire to expand understanding of our existence. While this desire extends outwards into the natural world and its phenomena, it also focuses inwards, towards the landscapes and mysteries of the body. We conceptualize, pontificate, and dream about what our physical form means.
Wittgenstein said, “The human body is the best picture of the soul.” As artists reimagine the meaning, possibility, aesthetic, purpose, and role of the body, the visual expression of this ‘soul’ or ‘inner self’ continues to be expressed in novel ways. This discussion becomes especially complex as the biological sciences reveal the seemingly inextricable link between the body and the inner self through neuroscience, microbiology, and genomics. Increasingly, the inner self is embedded in our layered physical forms.
By exploring everything from our bones, gross anatomy, physiology, microbiology, neurobiology, evolution, genomes, and more, how do we begin to understand ourselves in new ways? What do our bodies tell us about who we are?
Curated by Marnie Benney
Wittgenstein said, “The human body is the best picture of the soul.” As artists reimagine the meaning, possibility, aesthetic, purpose, and role of the body, the visual expression of this ‘soul’ or ‘inner self’ continues to be expressed in novel ways. This discussion becomes especially complex as the biological sciences reveal the seemingly inextricable link between the body and the inner self through neuroscience, microbiology, and genomics. Increasingly, the inner self is embedded in our layered physical forms.
By exploring everything from our bones, gross anatomy, physiology, microbiology, neurobiology, evolution, genomes, and more, how do we begin to understand ourselves in new ways? What do our bodies tell us about who we are?
Curated by Marnie Benney
Reviewed in LABIOTECH
AMANDA AGRICOLA
"What if you could give language to that which has no set language or is insufficiently described? My work would like to describe the uncharted territory of the self’s inner most landscape, by attempting to carve out an internal experience in my viewer. My recent projects are deeply intimate and teeter between interactivity and caregiving. Most of my work seeks to explore human conditions through the lens of the machine and technology. I reflect on the increasing degree of dependency and comfort we find in our many electronic devices, all the while questioning societal ideals of health and normalcy in body and mind. I am striving for connection with and understanding of what lies beneath the superficial surface of my body and the bodies of my viewers - tapping into something that contains a whisper of truth."
"Imperfect Torus" (2016). Universal bellybutton selfie, digital GIF file. "This is one of many GIFs that I have made from crowd sourced belly buttons that I have been collecting, some from people I know, and some from complete strangers."
"Light Body: Touch" (2105). Massage chair, digitally printed nylon lycra, Seasonal Affective Disorder light.
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"Reward Center: Love Like Heroin" (2014). 2'6" x 6'. Digital print on silk.
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"Reward Center: Active 2.14 and Reward Center: the release of oxytocin" (2014). 2'6" x 6'. Digital print on silk.
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"'Reward Center' is a series of prints made by taking scans of my bed after making love, and splitting the 3-d scan into layers in order to create topographic maps."
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CHINA BLUE
"I am interested in how our world is built from our sensations and perceptions and how the this emerging Umwelt provides not only a basis for exploring the inner world of the mind, but also how technological extensions of our senses, provide a way to transcend their limits. My work extends my audience’s perceptual world through my investigations and explorations into bioacoustics, ultra and infrasonic sampling devices, EEG recordings, and robotic sensory avatars.
'MindDraw' is an interactive work that enables people to draw with their brain waves. It expands our understanding of ourselves by using the brain waves that occur inside the physical body to not only shape images but also show one way in which we can impact our world, thus providing dreams of new futures imagined by bodily enhancements. The pictures are one example of a MindDraw drawings."
'MindDraw' is an interactive work that enables people to draw with their brain waves. It expands our understanding of ourselves by using the brain waves that occur inside the physical body to not only shape images but also show one way in which we can impact our world, thus providing dreams of new futures imagined by bodily enhancements. The pictures are one example of a MindDraw drawings."
"MindDraw" (2015). 16" x 20". Video still.
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"MindDraw" (2015). 16" x 20". Video still.
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"MindDraw" (2015). 16" x 20". Video still.
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"MindDraw" (2015). 16" x 20". Video still.
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JULIA BUNTAINE
"The brain is a plastic organ; between learning, new experiences, remembering, and forgetting, a multitude of neural and network connections that constitute the brain change daily according one's experience. Importantly, much in the brain also remains the same day to day; when you wake up you know who you are, where your job is, where you keep your T-shirts when you go to get dressed, which you remember you are supposed to do.
'January in the Frontal Lobe' is a GIF of digital drawings that represent the plastic processes of learning and memory. With 31 drawings - or days - in total, this piece is a snapshot into the month of the life of the brain. The first drawing is based directly on a brain cross section generated by the Seung Lab at MIT. Each subsequent drawing is then based on the previous one. Since we can't yet see, on the cellular level, how the brain changes daily, this work is an imagination, an educated approximation, of change over time. Colors standing in for content, the morphologies of the neurons vary slightly as connections are reinforced or weaken. Some colors take over for a few 'days' at a time, acting as a thought which you cannot shake. Some elements largely remain the same, acting as the bedrock of the self."
'January in the Frontal Lobe' is a GIF of digital drawings that represent the plastic processes of learning and memory. With 31 drawings - or days - in total, this piece is a snapshot into the month of the life of the brain. The first drawing is based directly on a brain cross section generated by the Seung Lab at MIT. Each subsequent drawing is then based on the previous one. Since we can't yet see, on the cellular level, how the brain changes daily, this work is an imagination, an educated approximation, of change over time. Colors standing in for content, the morphologies of the neurons vary slightly as connections are reinforced or weaken. Some colors take over for a few 'days' at a time, acting as a thought which you cannot shake. Some elements largely remain the same, acting as the bedrock of the self."
"January in the Frontal Lobe" (2016). Digital GIF.
KINDRA CRICK
"My work explores the intersection between the 'two cultures'of science and art which share a common wonder at the creative possibilities of the material and natural worlds. I am especially fascinated by the human brain - our complex machine - which can fathom the beginning of time and the nature of its own thought. However, even after centuries of study, scientists are only now starting to chart the mysterious biological map of that thought.
In my recent 'Cerebral Wilderness' series, I juxtaposed the unknown self as landscape and our collective uncertain future climate. I combined century-old maps of the brain (Brodmann and Phrenology), diagrams of glacial melting on Mt. Hood and topographic maps of the Mt. Hood wilderness. The re-imagined Brodmann's maps of the brain are reminiscent of traditional geographic cartography and convey the unique power of our imagination to envision solutions for our changing climate and simultaneously represent the expansive wilderness contained within our own minds. Our knowledge of ourselves and our environment are inextricably linked as changing landscapes transformed by scientific discovery."
In my recent 'Cerebral Wilderness' series, I juxtaposed the unknown self as landscape and our collective uncertain future climate. I combined century-old maps of the brain (Brodmann and Phrenology), diagrams of glacial melting on Mt. Hood and topographic maps of the Mt. Hood wilderness. The re-imagined Brodmann's maps of the brain are reminiscent of traditional geographic cartography and convey the unique power of our imagination to envision solutions for our changing climate and simultaneously represent the expansive wilderness contained within our own minds. Our knowledge of ourselves and our environment are inextricably linked as changing landscapes transformed by scientific discovery."
"Brodmann's Map (1914)" (2015). 16.5" x 16.5". Mixed media.
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"Hindsight" (2016). 16.5" x 16.5". Mixed media with topographic map.
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"Brodmann's Wilderness - Mt. Hood" (2015). 24" x 24". Mixed media with reassembled topographic map.
STEVEN GAWOSKI
"My creative exploration concentrates on the transmutation of the scientific image, by a subjective interpretation of digitally captured environments. A new image is then rendered through a systematic organization of linear mechanics. The reference materials I primarily use are from remote viewing devices that, by way of scale, distance, or other prohibitive means, separate the human observer from the object. My references are restricted by the limits of the technology used to capture them, and by embellishing ambiguous detail, I've substituted the digitizing and coding process with my own drawing technique. As a result I deliberately enhance the drama of forms to create semi-fictional delineations on paper."
"Bacteria" 20" x 24". Graphite on paper.
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"Red Itch" 18" x 22". Colored pencil on paper.
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"Red Bacteria" 13" x 20". Colored pencil on paper.
"Lung #1" 22" x 36". Graphite on paper.
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"Strep by Strep" 22" x 34". Colored pencil on paper.
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BOJANA GINN
"I am interested in re-defining our relationship to ancient materials, in the context of the current environmental situation. My installations are landscapes of light, protein, and DNA, alongside synthetic polymers. As such, the work is ambivalent. On one hand, it advocates for environmental healing. On the other, it reveals a precarious condition: How will the micro synthetics of contemporary production influence our most venerable biology?
Manipulated in a non-traditional manner, fibers of wool (protein & DNA) are stretched into non-existence, exposing the microcosms of organic tangles, presented as 3D drawings. The mix of organic and synthetic fibers is molded into Platonic forms, suggesting new utopias. Working in synergy with fiber, projected digital spaces are the sources of light and shadow. Video is process based drawing in action, revealing the manipulation of line. As such, it displays the flow of thoughts, exposing itself as reflection, a mirror of consciousness and creativity."
Manipulated in a non-traditional manner, fibers of wool (protein & DNA) are stretched into non-existence, exposing the microcosms of organic tangles, presented as 3D drawings. The mix of organic and synthetic fibers is molded into Platonic forms, suggesting new utopias. Working in synergy with fiber, projected digital spaces are the sources of light and shadow. Video is process based drawing in action, revealing the manipulation of line. As such, it displays the flow of thoughts, exposing itself as reflection, a mirror of consciousness and creativity."
"Think! Think! Think!" (2016). Video.
"Plastic Gene 4" (2016). 8" x 8" x 13.5". DNA, keratin, Ethylene-Vinil.
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"Synaptic Kiss" (2013). 9" x 9" x 12". Keratin and DNA.
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ELLEN HANAUER
"My work pays homage to the machine that creates it; honoring the skin, the bones, the fat, the muscle, the fascia, the veins, the blood, and the cells. How extraordinary that these parts coexist so poetically, so symphonically in this machine of mine. Such a brilliant design. With reverence, I portray the body from the inside out, if only to recognize beauty in its purest form. I beckon you to join me and look down, deep into the layers of fat, fascia, and muscle tissue. Get small. Small enough to peer directly into the cells. Deep within is the true energy of life - and it is in this small, sacred space where real beauty lies.”
"Udderly" (2001). 10" x 9" x 8". Clay, encaustics. Photo credit Peter Jacobs.
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"Fat Burner" (2001). 32" x 22" x 18". Mixed media, encaustics, fiber, polyurethane foam. Photo credit Peter Jacobs.
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"Skinned" (2001). 14" x 14" x 12". Plaster, encaustics, handmade paper, hand-dyed fiber. Photo credit Peter Jacobs.
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"Jewels" (2000). 20" x 12" x 14". Mixed media. Photo credit Peter Jacobs.
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GUNES-HELENE ISTAN
“Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed” -Lavoisier
"Merging biological arts with philosophy and multispecies ethnography, my art encourages a rethinking of what it means to be human beyond anthropocentrism. By exploring the cultural barriers we build in the life continuum, it questions human nature by revealing the interdependent relations and co-becoming fates from which our world emerges.
My artworks consider the idea of a biological, rather than a cybernetic, post-humanity. They present realities that are located beyond our five senses - realities where permeability between species is tangible, and where each being is a singular and fluid ecosystem participating within a larger biotope. These are realities where human and non-human life exists in continuity rather than in opposition, and where humans, by losing their centrality, become more-than-humans. Borrowing from heuristic and biological methodologies, I explore these transient, fleeting moments of realities in co-becoming."
"Merging biological arts with philosophy and multispecies ethnography, my art encourages a rethinking of what it means to be human beyond anthropocentrism. By exploring the cultural barriers we build in the life continuum, it questions human nature by revealing the interdependent relations and co-becoming fates from which our world emerges.
My artworks consider the idea of a biological, rather than a cybernetic, post-humanity. They present realities that are located beyond our five senses - realities where permeability between species is tangible, and where each being is a singular and fluid ecosystem participating within a larger biotope. These are realities where human and non-human life exists in continuity rather than in opposition, and where humans, by losing their centrality, become more-than-humans. Borrowing from heuristic and biological methodologies, I explore these transient, fleeting moments of realities in co-becoming."
"Benoit-Microbiota Hybrid" (2015). 9" x 12". Chrome, microorganisms from the microbiota, resin, steel frame. From the "Hybridities: Almost Other" series.
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"Gunes-Microbiota Hybrid" (2015). 9" x 12". Chrome, microorganisms from the microbiota, resin, steel frame. From the "Hybridities: Almost Other" series.
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"'Hybridities: Almost Other' seeks to present revealing "biometric auto portraits" evoking both our human face and our invisible counterpart, our microbiota, in order to re-evaluate what being human really means."
"The Gaze from Within" (2014). 24" diameter. Digitized bioart printed on metal, grown
from a woman's bellybutton. From the "Humanscapes" series.
from a woman's bellybutton. From the "Humanscapes" series.
"Nervous Body" (2014). 20" x 20". Digitized bioart printed on metal, grown from a woman's bellybutton. From the "Humanscapes" series.
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"Underworld" (2013). 20" x 20" Digitized bioart printed on metal, grown from a foot (the right one, not the left one). From the "Humanscapes" series.
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MARIE MUNK
"Human physicality is becoming a raw material for creative experimentation. People are transforming into efficient and durable bio-engineered machines. We aspire to individualism alongside expanding connectivity. Celebrating individual efficiency we lack time to invest in our beloved and transform our social and emotional presence into huggable robots that 'seem to understand' human feelings.
In this transition I allow my self to imagine a future reality where emotional reasons to be social is long forgotten. Obsessed with the 'right life' people crave complete independence, seeking schedulable and effortless contactless contact without responsibility. Emotional physical interaction is as alien to people as meditation is in our tightly scheduled lives today. Yearning for skin contact is a simple biological need in line with a visit to the toilet. Friday nights in the sofa are accompanied by DIY printed relationship replacements and intimate moments are consumed like a latte to go, to curb the ‘skin hunger’ with the necessary kick of interaction hormones.
My work investigates the transformational consequences of the disappearance of human physical interaction in mixed reality through artificially simulating intimacy. The two installations 'Onesome' and 'Skin' provide a sensory experience through interaction to shed light on the emotional aspect of human interaction in the future of bio-technology."
In this transition I allow my self to imagine a future reality where emotional reasons to be social is long forgotten. Obsessed with the 'right life' people crave complete independence, seeking schedulable and effortless contactless contact without responsibility. Emotional physical interaction is as alien to people as meditation is in our tightly scheduled lives today. Yearning for skin contact is a simple biological need in line with a visit to the toilet. Friday nights in the sofa are accompanied by DIY printed relationship replacements and intimate moments are consumed like a latte to go, to curb the ‘skin hunger’ with the necessary kick of interaction hormones.
My work investigates the transformational consequences of the disappearance of human physical interaction in mixed reality through artificially simulating intimacy. The two installations 'Onesome' and 'Skin' provide a sensory experience through interaction to shed light on the emotional aspect of human interaction in the future of bio-technology."
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"Onesome" (2016). 50" x 25" x 40". Silicone, kumbucha, acrylic, wood.
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"Skin" (2016). 95" x 63" x 83". Silicone, wood, metal, PVC, electronics.
VALERIYA N-GEORG
"The subject matter of my work is the ultimate mystery of the relationship between the physical human body and the inner self (or the human spirit). Within my practice I am investigating the representation of the invisible through fragments of the physical body. I am interested in exploring the boundaries between the inner and outer body; between the physical and metaphysical; tangible and intangible, by exploring the tactile and the optical image.
The works I am creating are monotype prints on gel medium presented on boards and light boxes, thus combining media and pushing the boundaries of printmaking. This process of printing on layered gel is a time consuming one, which references the gradual peeling of human skin, exposing and suggesting the materiality inside the human body. Human skin intrigues me, as it is the largest organ of the body. It is a membrane, both barrier and shield between inner and outer and at the same time it is that which connects our bodies to everything outside. It can provide the most intimate of experience and the most public, as it is what presents us to the world. The light box presentation illuminates the ink print made upon the gel surface and conveys a sense of a medical forensic examination on the surgeon’s table."
The works I am creating are monotype prints on gel medium presented on boards and light boxes, thus combining media and pushing the boundaries of printmaking. This process of printing on layered gel is a time consuming one, which references the gradual peeling of human skin, exposing and suggesting the materiality inside the human body. Human skin intrigues me, as it is the largest organ of the body. It is a membrane, both barrier and shield between inner and outer and at the same time it is that which connects our bodies to everything outside. It can provide the most intimate of experience and the most public, as it is what presents us to the world. The light box presentation illuminates the ink print made upon the gel surface and conveys a sense of a medical forensic examination on the surgeon’s table."
"Axon" (2016). 197" x 44". Digital print.
"Placebo" detail
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"Placebo" (2016). 158" x 44". Digital print.
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JASMINE PRADISSITTO
"I am a painter and physicist who sculpts in light and plastic. Light, dual in nature, stimulates sight and makes things visible and as a verb, light is also spiritual illumination by divine truth. Using transparent plastics and wavelengths of light to illuminate the work, the laws of pattern in both evolution and environment have long fascinated me."
"Scream" (2016). 12" x 12". Plastic and light.
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"Reach to Heaven" (2016). 24" x 12" x 8". Plastic and light:
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JODY RASCH
"Duality - abstraction and representation, the literal and the metaphorical, science and mysticism, the unseen and the seen - is a predominant theme in my work. These pieces, based on electron microscopy, particle accelerators, and radio astronomy are an expression of both the patterns of the natural world and the metaphors underlying modern science. They allow us to see the beauty in the repulsive, to find knowledge in the unknown, to observe the unseen to more clearly see our world.
The techniques I use in creating the images are further expressions of duality. Gold in images from science echoes the gold halos of religious icons and the tiny, fine lines are amassed to render microscopic and subatomic images on a large scale and the galactic on a small scale."
The techniques I use in creating the images are further expressions of duality. Gold in images from science echoes the gold halos of religious icons and the tiny, fine lines are amassed to render microscopic and subatomic images on a large scale and the galactic on a small scale."
"Sweet/Diabetes" (2002). 50" x 60". Oil paint on canvas.
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"Healing - White Blood Cell 2" (2016). 30" x 30". Oil paint on board.
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"Lifeless/Ovarian Cancer" (2014). 81" x 55". Colored pencil on paper.
"Gleason 7" (2014). 55" x 64". Colored pencil on paper.
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"Healing - White Blood Cell" (2016). 45" x 45". Oil paint on board.
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CHERYL SAFREN
"Our bodies and the body of the universe - the same complex patterns appear in both. The order found in these patterns contrasted with the random and unfinished state of all living organisms provides a dynamic equilibrium that fascinates me. In these two metal works, I give concrete expression to the forms I wish to develop. In general, I explore natural forms too small or too remote to be seen by the human eye alone. Some of the colors generated on these copper panels are known as interference colors and are produced by a transparent oxide film deposited on the metal surface. The colors develop when part of the light striking the oxide surface reflects and part passes through the film before reflecting off the metal below. When the delayed light reappears and combines with the surface light waves, they may either reinforce or cancel each other, generating a specific hue. The thickness of the oxide film dictates the color. When the light dims or strikes at oblique angles, the color becomes saturated."
"Follicles" 24" x 36". Chemistry on copper.
"Follicles" detail
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"Ovum" detail
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"Ovum" 36" x 36". Chemistry on copper.
GARY SCOTT
"My sculptures range from figuration to abstraction, referencing and evoking nature and the body in challenging ways. My works attempt to embody the process of making with dynamic, roughly hewn surfaces that imply the forms are vying for life or attempting to dissolve themselves. Simultaneously witty, sexy, playful, and macabre, I aim for the sculptures to reach, wilt, twist, and tear themselves into being. References from science, literature, music, and art history are embraced, channeled and willfully distorted to create works that reflect desire, conflict, and our ability to connect with the world."
"Castle in the Air" (2016). 39"h. Bronze resin.
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"Mad as the Mist and Snow" (2015). 34"h. Bronze and iron resin.
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"Flight of Fancy" (2016). 33"h. Bronze resin.
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"Midnight on the Hill" (2015). 33"h. Bronze and iron resin.
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"There was a Time" (2016). 25"h. Bronze and iron resin.
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STEVE SMART
"These images are concerned with the physicality of movement, and the subtleties of human anatomy, neurology, and intent which control it. Kinesthetic empathy plays a part making images from the periphery of dance which are about perceived boundaries of both sensation and effort."
"Eyes Open" (2016). 11" x 16.5". Unmounted digital print.
"Arch 10" (2016). 11" x 16.5". Unmounted digital print.
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"Callosum" (2016). 11" x 16.5". Unmounted digital print.
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"Perfusion" (2016). 11" x 16.5". Unmounted digital print.
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ELAINE WHITTAKER
"'Cc: me' is a mixed media installation of drawings and live bacteria. The body becomes a site for the infectious nature of language - nuanced, messaged, poetic, copied. It is based on the content of a collection of facsimile thermal transfer carbon rolls, technological remnants of the rapidly disappearing world of the fax, collected at the Toronto Environmental Alliance over a ten-year period. Abstracted human figures, sketched using these discarded carbon fax typographies, are presented as both wall drawings and insertions in Petri dish installations teeming with live bacteria (Halobacterium sp. NRC-1). The spent faxes, of once urgent environmental campaigns, are juxtaposed against crass viral commercial messaging, becoming shadowy iterations of the body, images of mutable histories, degraded texts, and transformative ecology. The carbon copy of yesterday becomes the transfigured body of today."
"Cc:me" (2012). 75" X 103". Petri dishes, fax carbon, mylar, Halobacterium sp.NRC-1.
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"Cc:me" detail
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"Emerge" (detail)
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"Emerge" (2012). 6' x 1'. Mylar, fax carbon, Petri dishes, agar, Halobacterium sp.NRC-1.
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"Waste Reduction" (2012). 12" x 24". Pigmented wax, fax carbon, wood board.