Matter of medicine? Matter of witchcraft?
by Lisa Rocke (09.07.2023)
Artificial wombs, silicone breast binders with living cancer cells and tissue culture from menstrual blood: The project space Art Laboratory Berlin is showing from 27 May to 9 July with MATTER OF FLUX an exhibition that is queer feminist, refreshingly evocative and highly topical. WhiteFeather Hunter, Lyndsey Walsh and Shu Lea Cheang, together with Ewen Chardronnet, combine art and scientific research in a special way.
I enter a clinically white room in which an artificial fetus is floating in a transparent egg-shaped vessel. It is connected by thick tubes to a machine that hums and clatters quietly. Words like “mother machine,” “harvest,” and “cyborg” can be read on the walls. Everything seems a bit spooky. Am I in a science fiction vision by multimedia artist Shu Lea Cheang and author, curator, and journalist Ewen Chardronnet? The installation UNBORN0x9 examines the development of fetuses in artificial wombs. If human reproduction is becoming increasingly technological, is the biological body still necessary? The humming noise you hear in the installation is actually ultrasound waves translated into sound. Even if it all seems strange at first, I wonder whether this type of obstetric care would be a support for people who are biologically unable to bear children. Admittedly, UNBORN0x9 is provocative – but it makes sense thanks to the research behind it. Will baby production outside the body perhaps become part of our everyday lives in the future?
Across from UNBORN0x9 the project is The Witch in the Lab Coat by WhiteFeather Hunter. You can see a construction made of various interconnected glass flasks through which a blood-red liquid is passed. On the wall hang photographs of menstrual cups and drops of blood in petri dishes. What is being investigated here? WhiteFeather Hunter is an artist and scientist. Among other things, she researches stem cells that she extracts from her menstrual fluid. As with Shu Lea Chang, the artistic aspect of her work is clearly visible. The works are visually appealing and follow a clear aesthetic through their arrangement, choice of materials and coloring. The thoughts, scientific processes and, above all, obstacles behind this project only really become clear in conversation with the artist and through the extensive accompanying material. The fact that it takes 8 months of bureaucratic effort, for example, to be officially allowed to work with blood, which is still demonized today, in a laboratory is shocking. It is also worrying that this liquid, which is part of everyday life for so many people, is still far too little researched. So, as a scientist who works with menstrual blood and breaks down social boundaries, can WhiteFeather Hunter be seen as a modern, feminist witch? The connection is obvious, and it is encouraging for me to know that there are people who, despite all the barriers, are dealing with the issue of women’s health and are driving forward scientific research in this area.
In the second room of the exhibition there is a large incubator in which a warm breast bandage made of transparent silicone hangs. Fine veins have been embroidered into it and a reddish liquid has been injected. Lyndsey Walsh, a non-binary artist and researcher, presents the project Self-Care. It is about the personal handling of a diagnosed, inherited gene mutation, which in Lyndsey Walsh’s case will most likely lead to breast cancer. How do you deal with it when you are literally waiting for cancer? Self-Care consists of two video works in which Lyndsey Walsh reads a personal letter to her mother and questions the care systems. What medical and therapeutic procedures are discussed, especially in relation to a body read as female?
Walsh injected cancer cells into the breast bandage to keep them alive. I wonder why Lyndsey Walsh doesn’t want to kill the cancer cells in order to defeat the disease. But it’s all about coming to terms with the future cancer, trying it on and getting to know it at your own, controlled pace. The breast bandage can also be seen as Lyndsey Walsh coming out as non-binary.
Matter of Flux has it all: A lot is happening, it is visually impressive and exciting. At the same time, it feels like I have entered the private sphere of three artists at the same time. The exhibition space may be small, but you could spend hours there. If you want to discover the complex content behind the works, you should take time to look at the artists’ research works on display. The years of scientific research that go into all of the exhibited works and is an essential part of them is only visible in their entirety in this way.
The topics of this exhibition are unvarnished and may be challenging for some people, but they belong in the public sphere and even more so in scientific discourse. Is female and non-binary health finally about to become part of the public and medicine, or must witches continue to exist?
26 May – 9 July 2023
MATTER OF FLUX
Artistic Research
Artists:
WhiteFeatherHunter
Lyndsey Walsh
Shu Lea Cheang and Ewen Chardronnet
Art Laboratory Berlin
Prinzenallee 34
13359 Berlin
artlaboratory-berlin.org
Lisa Rock
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