Magical Realism in Bioengineering
Probably many of you have read about the curious case of Gregor Samsa - the clerk who was transformed into a cockroach overnight for no reason and by an unknown contributor. The impetuous transformation broke Samsa’s predictable and routine life into pieces. In the battle he fought for overcoming the impossibility of his mere existence, Gregor gradually lost senses and abilities. The marginalization of his life led him to the levels at which the metamorphosical momentum became unstoppable and he was diminishing away from humanity one step at a time.
“The Metamorphosis” of Franz Kafka is considered as one of the greatest novellas in philosophical literature and a lot of ink was spilled on it by critics and scholars. The eponym Kafkaesque, often overused and misinterpreted at times, in general describes an enigmatic or surreal sequence of events. I find it quite useful however for depicting Patricia Piccinini’s work. Patricia is an Australian contemporary artist, an alumnus of Victorian College of the Arts, that portrays many of the perplexing issues of bioengineering and the absurdities of technoculture’s generations.
Piccinini produced several unusual creatures (many find them lovable) for the Venice Biennale exhibition in 2003 and labeled the project “We Are Family”. She shares her vision and fears of the future. The genetic developments, xenotransplantation (the process whereby human genes are spliced together with those of animals) in particular, aiming to help humanity to eradicate diseases, will soon be ubiquitous in medical clinics. It is both fascinating and dreadful to consider what such bioengineered creatures might look like. What is more, will it be possible for them to adapt to a hostile environment or will they see their lives as meaningless as Gregor Samsa did (for they are partly human)?
Take a look at her queerest human and non-human critters from the projects “The Long Awaited (2008)”, “The Foundling (2008)”, “Nature’s Little Helpers (2005)”, “We Are Family (2003)”:
Nature’s Little Helpers: “Big Mother” and “Surrogate for the Northern Hairynosed Wombat”
Nature’s Little Helpers: “Surrogate for the Northern Hairynosed Wombat” (the first two pictures) and “Bodyguard for the Golden Helmeted Honeyeater” (on the right)
We Are Family: “The Young Family”
We Are Family: “The Young Family”
“Foundling” (the first two pictures) and “The Long Awaited” (on the right)
