Bio-Myth Lab: Chimera

2023
C2C12 mouse myoblast cells, HeLa cells, clay, prints
Dimensions variable

The project speculates a bio-myth research facility in the post-biological era. Audiences enter the space to investigate chimeras – creatures that bear layers of contextual identities: mythical monsters made of different animal parts, organisms containing genetically distinct cells, engineered lab subjects composed of multi-origin tissues or organs. The space provides a paradoxical setting with bio-lab equipment, lab-grown chimeric tissues, myth writer’s notes, depicted chimeras on potteries, and craftsman tool kits. Audiences are invited to read, watch, write, and make –  to wander between imaginative and pragmatic research paradigms.

The investigation of chimeras probes into questions of our knowledge production. What are the implications and limitations of life science taxonomies? How do we define selves and others, pure and hybrid, norm and derivation? How do science, art, and mythology constantly interpret life and invent realities? What discursive role can art play in biotechnological and bioethical discourses?