Bio-art: A growing concern.

( The Stendhal Syndrome exhibition was held at George Petelin Gallery, Gold Coast during November 2008.)

An exhibition exploring Bio-Art, Genetic Art, Xenogenic Art and a myriad of investigative and declarative attitudes is currently pushing the envelope of art and science at George Petelin Gallery, Smith Street, Southport.

Dr. George Petelin who lectures in Art theory at QCA Griffith University has co-curated this fascinating and challenging exhibition with QCA graduate artist Jo Diball. The exhibition showcases the work of eight artists who have engaged with the Stendhal Syndrome's exhibition premise that exposure to Art can cause rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and hallucinatory effects, hence Stendhal's Syndrome.

A fascinating confluence of science, text, time-based video, and bacteriological artistry is the installation Proto Animate 1.04 by new media genetic artist, academic researcher and University of Newcastle lecturer Andre Brodyk. This work is centred upon two small school issue (retro) chairs covered in barely decipherable chalk notations, they each hold an interdependant object for contemplation. One a petrie disc with a bacteriographic and cameo sized painted head of a middle aged male, John Doe 0050, the other a small videoscreen which records the changes- deterioration and regeneration over time. A band of chalk written genetic code spans the back wall, scribed on a single horizontal band of blackboard paint. This work is poetic in breadth and didactic in scope, a subtle and highly considered work which clearly articulates the perspective of a visual artist and emphasises symbioses and synergies happening now in Art and Science spheres; particularly in overlapping zones of research and technology. In terms of innovation and precedent, this is the first time an artwork constituted from a living transgenic organism has been exhibited in a commercial art gallery.

Trish Adams who investigates cellular level behavior and has recently collaborated with the Visual and Sensory Neuroscience Group under leadership of Professor Mandyam Srinivasan, synthesises her observation in animation and digital projection. Adams' Mitosis, is an installation of small Jewel-like sculptures with accompanying projected DVD, is a deceptively simple piece which playfully presents sculptural biomorphs in subtle interractions and organic multiplication (mitoses) whilst accompanied by a soundtrack of techno-like beeps and squeaks which present as expressions of Adams' Mitoses' own particular sonic language.
Whilst the overarching intent of this exhibition may well be read as cerebral and intellectually charged, it is works such as Trish Adams' Mitosis which are presented with a touch of humour that brings the work back to the ordinary level of human accessibility.

Queensland College of Art, Griffith University lecturer and sculptor Bradd Nunn deploys digital imaging in his series Apparatus which presents sepia- toned, fictional constructs based on artery forceps, a skull drill, and artificial “peg leg” and a urinal. There is something disturbing about these digitally constructed, highly symmetrical, monochrome prosthetic conflations. Nunn's sabre rattling Iron fist on the other hand is less contemplative and more declarative. His low- relief sculpture, pitched as a metaphor for self: my hands and my being coloured a rich blood red, speaks of craftsmanship and discipline and is reminiscent of medieval armour. This is a powerful, timeless and engaging work. Testimony to a commitment to art practice by an artist who has transcended the ravages of a physically and neurologically debilitating brain hemorrhage at the age of 28. This experience has profoundly informed Nunn's inquiry into the intersection of the two prevailing notions of the prosthesis as they are imagined or enacted by artists: compensatory prosthetic augmentation of the so-called disabled body, and bio-tech “enhancement” of so-called normal bodies for a high-tech future.1

Artist Jonathon McBurnie would certainly have experienced his share of dizziness and confusion when enduring the challenge of being diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in 2003. Jonathon's large tryptych It's come to this is a work of human tenacity of spirit. A richly biographic (although not strictly narrative) account of the artists ruminations and exaltation after overcoming the debilitating and life threatening disease. His brother Ben McBurnie's (Ben is a QUT Film School graduate) short documentary film about Jonathon's journey through leukemia was screened at the Stendhal Syndrome opening to an attentive and appreciative audience. This engaging film was insightful of Jonathon's personal journey and the artist's diaristic journals (he kept 50 drawing journals whilst hospitalised) which it may well be argued, had helped M'cBurnie overcome the disease. The healing power of art through self actualisation.
Svenja Kratz is a new media artists who explores concepts of self, other and the body in her sculptural works Mutable Death Masks – a set of human visages created from slow recovery polyurethane foam impregnated with Saos-2 bone cancer cells. Kratz's plaster work Death Masks#1”Alice Becoming” is an intriguing work, clinical in its' realisation; a blanched and melancholic interpretation of the individual Alice, an 11 year old girl, whose bone cancer cells have been widely used in bio-experimentation. Kratz presents a highly considered and diversely analytical body of work including Bone Breath – a digital video animation with accompanying breath sounds, investigating bone fragment morphology and Hybrid Insects, an insect- scaled work, constructed from disparate elements and materials such as bone cancer cells, insect cells from a larval army worm moth, pigment, silk plastic wire, human and synthetic hair. Kratz has worked with scientists from the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, and along with fellow exhibiting artists Trish Adams, Eden St. James, Alicia King and Andre Brodyk have all undertaken residencies at SymbioticA, University of Western Australia's Bio-art laboratory.
Artist Hazel Cope draws upon her personal experience in the nursing profession in her monochrome digital photographic prints which depict 1960's era nurses coif and ancillary implements in a suite entitled Nurses Coif and Bone Scraper. Whilst these images are social documentary in genre and style, they are also elegant, fragile and informed with aesthetic considerations which extend beyond straightforward documentation of socio-historical objects. Celebrating the work of those engaged in health and healing, these images operate as metaphors for the multi-skilled nurses who symbolise selfless commitment. Eden St. James' work focuses on the body battleground, and can be read as a declarative statement celebrating identity in his large photographic portraits with corresponding pathology reports. This is a challenging, confident, and conceptual work which maps the body as it mutates from one stage to the next. 2 The confronting monochrome photographs of the artist are highly detailed and unencumbered by artifice, which serves to add strength to the clinical portrayal of the artist's conception and expression of self.

Moving into biological and environment permutations and exploring the relationships between biotech practices and the physical ethical and ritual body3 is the work by Alicia King, Deep deep down. This sculptural work sits proud of (growing out from) the gallery wall with its' illusory faux moss, replete with cradled inhabitant miniature crystalline glass skeleton. This finely crafted work brings into focus ideas of human mortality, biological interpendant systems and environmental stewardship.

Stendhal Syndrome is an exhibition at the cutting edge and likely to generate much discussion. It is a credit to the participating artists and curators, and testimony to Dr. Petelin's commitment to articulate presentations of leading edge contemporary art practice on Queensland's Gold Coast. This exhibition is certainly worthy of wider attention and dissemination.The exhibition continues until 22 November 2008.

Garry Andrews
MAVA (Griffith), Diploma of Arts (Townsville).

1Brad Nunn, artist's statement. George Petelin Gallery 2008.
2Eden St. James, Artist's statement. George Petelin Gallery 2008.
3Alicia King, Artist's statement. George Petelin Gallery 2008