bio-art

GARY GREENBERG

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Greenberg combines art, science, and engineering to create microscopic photographs that reveal the hidden beauty of sand, flowers, food, and the human body. Greenberg builds the tools of his craft; he invented the “high-definition, three-dimensional light microscopes” with which he creates his photographs.1 His images give us unfamiliar and intimate views of materials we encounter every day.

Greenberg's Body Images
Microscopic images of retinas and bone.

Greenberg's Flower Images
Microscopic images of Royal Poinciana and Hibiscus flowers.

See Greenberg’s site.

1See Greenberg’s biography.

HEATHER DEWEY-HAGBORG

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Stranger Visions, 2012-15
Dewey-Hagborg collects DNA samples unwittingly left behind by New Yorkers. She gathers cigarette butts, chewing gum, and threads of hair, lifts DNA from the items, and looks for genetic codes that indicate gender, eye and hair color, racial background and facial structure.1 She then feeds those genetic markers into software that generates a facial image and 3D-prints a sculptural portrait. Dewey-Hagborg’s portraits highlight the DNA trail we leave behind in our day-to-day activities; her work asks us to think about how discarded genetic information might be used in surveillance and crime investigations.

1 Peter Aldhous, “Artworks highlight legal debate over ‘abandoned’ DNA,” New Scientist, (June 10, 2013)

NEWTON and HELEN MAYER HARRISON

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Helen and Newton Harrison map the effects of climate change and explore ways to rehabilitate damaged ecosystems.

Wilma the Pig, 2012
A pig wanders around an indoor meadow planted in LA's Museum of Contemporary Art. The project re-creates a similar piece titled Hog Pasture first realized in 1970 at the Boston Museum of Fine Art. In its first instantiation, the Boston Museum refused to let a pig play a part in the exhibit.

Helen Harrison discusses the audience's encounter with the work: "All of a sudden people are looking at the environment in one way or another. And they're looking differently. In other words, it's bringing their attention in a way that is meaningful; they're enjoying it."1

Greenhouse Britain, 2007-2009
Projected images trace Britain's shrinking coastline as the seas rise. The images delineated eight future coastal boundaries; each one displaying the effects of an additional two-meter increase in sea level. The UK's rivers expand and coastline recedes at each stage of the sea's invasion.

Beyond documenting the changes to Britain's coastline, the project also proposes a variety of architectural, economic, and environmental solutions to reduce the impact of surging tides. The Harrisons write: "One key element in this work responds to the fact that the waters will rise gracefully, posing the questions, 'How might one withdraw with equal grace?' and 'How might one defend against the ocean’s rise?'"2

See more at the Harrison's studio website.

1The Harrison Studio presents Wilma the Pig
2Greenhouse Britain, The Harrison Studio

SYMBIOTICA

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SymbioticA combines art with the life sciences. The lab is known for its Tissue Culture and Art Project created by Ionat Zurr and Oron Catts. For that project, Zurr and Catts developed small sculptural forms made from live tissue.

See SymbioticA’s lab website.

When Pigs Fly, 2000
Catts and Zurr grew pig marrow cells on a 3D scaffold to create small wing-like sculptures.

Disembodied Cuisine, 2003
The lab created “steaks” using frog cells.

Victimless Leather, 2004
The lab crafted a tissue coat using “immortalised cell lines.”

See Tissue Culture and Art Project.