Trigger Warning: rape and assault
The Western telling of the history of relations between humans and nature highlights our gradual taming of it. Overcoming its inconveniences and instead benefitting from it has been central to our modernizing journey. We have continually surpassed the line of harmony to unimaginable, dystopian concepts that are getting more and more real. We can choose the eye colour of our babies now. We can even shoot lasers at them later to give us 20/20 vision. We can casually donate a kidney. We can change our biological gender. If someone from the 1960s stopped by the party, they would probably be dumbfounded.
And thus comes BioArt to the stage. A contemporary art movement that questions the boundaries of science through dystopia. BioArt is on the rise in Taiwan, with recent shows often exploring the boundaries of science technology. Provocative Futures : Speculation, Medical Science and the Human Body at The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art does just that, with artists Paul Gong and Kuang Yi Ku attempting to redefine scientific technology through the discipline of art.
Medical technologies are extremely relevant in today’s age of the pandemic. They have the potential to transform the human body and our social environment- something which has continually shaped our social history, particularly in terms of gender, race and disability. Paul Gong focuses on the functionality of the body and its potential impact on society. In The Appendix he seeks alternative uses for non functional organs. With these changes, can the transplanted body remain ‘human’? Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein comes to mind here. The production of a bodily hybrid sparks fear in society and, with the rise of biotech, the idea of a physically altered being appears more and more close to a potential reality.
Yet, the changed body has always been a topic of controversy. Think plastic surgery and its connotations of fakeness. Physical alteration is commonly associated with negative character traits- vanity, narcissism, fakeness, etc., despite the fact that it is a product of society’s physical ideals. Does the idea of BioArt fit in this box too? The altering of bodies to align with scientific ideals of the hybrid appears so.
Alternatively, Kuang Yi Ku, founder of Taiwan’s BioArt, unites the body and science through an exploration of adult development. His work Delayed Use, depicts a work in which medical technology delays the development of young people’s sexual organs. The intersection of politics and the body come into play here. The use and misuse of our sexual organs has historically been a topic of debate within ‘civilized’ societies, particularly in regards to the sexuality of womanhood. Our primary purpose as humans has continually been defined by our ability to reproduce, placing a great burden on the body of the woman. She’s been married off young. She’s been raped. In the past (and in some cultures today) she’d been mentally abused into producing a male baby. Maybe this artwork offers a solution to ongoing sexual abuse towards the adult body.
The intersection of science and art through the medium of BioArt allows us to perceive a future that we have not yet seen. Medical technology has transcended necessity into something that can be manipulated for the benefit of current politics just to satisfy our whims. BioArt gives space for a perception which has the possibility of becoming a reality.
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