Developed over four years The Absence of Alice consists of an evolving series of exhibitions that comment on Svenja Kratz’s experiences working within the area of cell and tissue culture at QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation. The title refers to the artist’s early experiences working with a cell line isolated in 1973 from the bone cancer lesio…n of an 11-year old girl, called Alice. All subsequent exhibitions map the creative evolution and movement of this initial engagement into other areas of applied biology, including genetic engineering and primary culture of mammalian cells.
THE ABSENCE OF ALICE and the bone gardens presents the seventh instance within the series and explores cycles of life and death and the complex relationships between humans and other organisms. The exhibition includes a variety of sculptural and new media works incorporating a variety of living, preserved and transformed organisms.
Presented in conjunction with Virtual Anatomies: The Cultural Impact of New Medical Imaging Technologies.
Supported by
Centre for the History of European Discourses at the University of Queensland
Image: Svenja Kratz, A Shrine for Algernon: Instance #2, 2010. Mixed media sculpture.
