Research
Residencies
Educate
Activities
Media
Contact information
Site Map
Subscribe
Tagny Duff
|
Tagny Duff
Books traditionally convey ideas, information and document human knowledge with the skin of trees (paper) and animals (leather). Similarly, contemporary biotechnology can be perceived as utilizing tissues, cells and skins as ‘pages’ of information through wet lab practices and bioinformatic archiving systems. The conservation and preservation of these tissues requires methods to prevent contamination through freezing, cooling and isolating books and specimens. The Cryobook Archives is an interdisciplinary art project exploring how viral transfection and contamination might be reimagined as producing living experiences and documentation forms using bookmaking and biotech processes. Specifically, the interrelation between humans and viruses is explored as a necessarily symbiotic one- albeit one full of apprehension. During my residency I will create handmade biological art books. The “cryobooks” are generated from human and pig skin, medical sutures, custom designed leather bookbinding stamps, immunohistochemical stains and biological Lentivirus ( a non-pathogenic derivative of HIV Strain 1). The use of viral host cells and immunohistostaining protocols developed for The Living Viral Tattoos (2008) will be developed further to render designs on human-animal skin. Guest artists will also be invited to contribute designs that re-imagine the symbolic rendering of the HIV virus. These designs will be imprinted with Lentivirus onto the pages of human and animal skin, and bound with surgical sutures. The books will be conserved through cryogenic preservation and suspended in -80 degrees. The books will be integrated into a future performance installation that will introduce public visitors an encounter with the fleshy viral books. Thanks to The Fremantle Arts Centre, Laetitia, Jo Pickup, Bevan Honey and Joshua Schwebel. My gratitude also goes to Dr. Stuart Hodgetts and Greg Cozens for their input into the development of the lab work and the generous staff at SymbioticA. Travel and project funding supported by: |
|
