Tag: 2009

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Miss|Placed Women

missplaced

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subRosa curated a ‘shift’ of programming for  the 15th gathering of Performance Studies International entitled Miss|Placed Women, that included a panel discussion and performances featuring artists Elena Marcevska, Violeta Luna, Tanja Ostojic, Sanja Ivekovic, Iva Kovac, and Roberto Varea. Zagreb, Croatia, June, 2009. This project has its own web site.

 

 

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Cell Track: Mapping the Appropriation of Life Materials

Cell Track is a flexible-scale wall installation and accompanying web site examining the privatization and patenting of human, animal, and plant genomes within the context of a history of eugenics. It has been exhibited alone and in combination with other subRosa projects, sometimes with site-specific content modifications. 

Cell Track draws attention to the increasing separation between the bodies that produce stem cells—and other genetic material—and the medical and pharmaceutical products derived from them.

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Maternal body cells and tissues—such as eggs, placentas, fetuses, and umbilical cord blood—have become valuable “raw materials” extracted and accumulated for emerging bio-tech industries.  This has opened new pathways for corporate science to profit from the manipulation and control of life via the privatization of DNA sequences, engineered genes, stem cell lines, transgenic organisms, and the like. Cell Track gives a historic overview of the privatization of biology while also raising the the possibility of activist, feminist-inspired experimental research and labs accessible to amateurs, artists, independent scientists, and non-profit researchers conducting research and sharing knowledge for the public good.

  • Bio-Difference: The Political Ecology, Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Univ. of Western Australia, Sept. 12–Oct. 3, 2004
  • YOUGenics3, curated by Ryan Griffis, Betty Rymer Gallery, Art Institute of Chicago, Dec. 4–Feb. 5, 2004
  • Deliciously Disposable Earth, curated by Carolina Loyola-Garcia, Three Rivers Arts Festival Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA, Jan. 17–Feb 22, 2008 (catalog)
  • Soft Power. Art and Technologies in the Biopolitical Age, curated by Maria Ptqk. Amarika Project at Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. Fall, 2009
  • BPLTC I: Cellular Control, curated by Eliane Ellbogen, Eastern Bloc, Montreal, Sept. 24–Oct. 14,  2015
  • Eugenic History of Southern Agriculture with subRosa and curated by Atlanta Anti-University at Murmur Gallery, Sept 12-13, 2016 

This project has its own web site, and you can download the Cultures of Eugenics booklet that accompanies it.

 

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International Markets of Flesh (IMF)

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An audience-participatory performance and collective mapping of the global trafficking in human organs and tissues, International Markets of Flesh [IMF] first took place on the altar of a 17th century converted convent church. Through participatory activities, demonstrations,  & manipulation of life-size organ sculptures, the audience learned about the growing international demand for transplantable organs and tissues, and the political, social, and medical consequences these demands create. Participants wrote personal stories and rumors about organ harvesting and trade on a large Dymaxion World Map, and affixed organ stickers. The visual accumulation of facts, fiction, and testimony effectively demonstrated the dominant flows of the flesh-market worldwide—with demand coming from the North/West and supply coming from the South/East. Performers and audience also discussed changing ideas about the value of human life in the age of genetically engineered, globally distributed, and patented human body parts, filled in a form estimating the net worth of their body parts and labor, and received a Certificate of Flesh Worth.

  • XI International Performance Art Festival: Out of Focus, ExTeresa Arte Actual, Mexico City, July 11, 2003.
  • Arte Nuevo InteractivA’05, Patio Central del Centro Cultural Olimpio, Mérida,Yucatan, Mexico, June 25, 2005.
  • A Studio of Their Own : The Legacy of the Fresno Feminist Experiment, 1970, Conley Art Gallery, CSU Fresno, CA,  Aug. 26-Oct. 11, 2009.

*Read about IMF in the Frakcija Performing Arts Journal and download the Flesh Worth Form.

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Constructa/vulva

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An interactive super-sized sculptural performance originally created as an element of subRosa’s “Knowing Bodies” installation in Fusion! Artists in a Research Setting [see below]. Constructa/vulva comes with a wildly colorful collection of ‘parts’, including many sizes and shapes of labia, cervix, and clitori. Performers (in recent versions, costumed as speculums) encourage and assist audience members in creating their ideal vulva by affixing their choices of parts to Velcroed surfaces. An instant portrait of the audience member with their creation was given to them.* The project honors the 1970s Feminist Women’s Health Movement, which encouraged women to get to know, love, and care for their own bodies and sexualities.

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  • Fusion! Artists in a Research Setting, Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, Aug. 22–Sept. 29, 2000.
  • EveryBody!: Visual resistance in feminist health movements, 1969-2009, curated by Bonnie Fortune. I-Space, Chicago. Sept. 11–Oct. 10, 2009 & Carleton College Gallery, April–May, 2011.
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SmartMom

A web project that satirically detourns the concept of Smart T-shirt technology (developed for remote battlefield medicine by the U.S. military) to the uses of pregnancy surveillance and assisted reproductive technologies, 1999 (redesigned in 2000 & 2009).