Waste Matters: You Are My Future
Similar to the first event of “Amanita” by Peter Lu that I went to, Kathy High's exhibition was also very different from what I was expecting. When hearing the name of the exhibition, I thought that the exhibition would be more or less about the trash created by human beings in the modern society; however, when I walked into the exhibition room, it was nothing like what I thought. I guess it is also the charm of the exhibition.
Me at the exhibition
On the left side of the exhibition room were drawings of intestines and children, made by Kathy High with collaboration with Oliver Kellhammer. Named “The Re-mediator Series,” the sketches for gut-to-soil bioremediation sculptures represented the microbial processes from internal to external environments. On the right hand side of the room were photos of Kathy High herself. A video of robot was being played repeatedly on the other wall of the room while an interview with microbiologist was being played on a screen. The video talked about a repopulate machine that was used to produce faeces, offering a reference for human beings to better understand our own bodies.
The Re-mediator Series
The Robot Video
The vessels in the middle of the exhibition room caught my eyes. At first I thought they were just stones immersed in water in glass bottles. When I looked closer at them, they were actually stool. I was totally confused by what I saw, but as I listened to the lecture by Kathy High and read the information on the wall, I gradually started to understand the theme of the exhibition. Diagnosed with Crohn's disease, Kathy High gained a lot of information and knowledge about human’s immune system. As an interdisciplinary artist in the areas of technology, science, speculative fiction and art, Kathy High combined technology, biology, and art together into art work with her own personal experience. In making the exhibition, Kathy High is trying to understand the cause and the cure of her illness. Linking personal illness to a broader picture, Kathy High put forward “ the imbalances of internal biomes as a mirror to the imbalances in our larger ecological sphere.” Just like we should face the problem of our bodies from our waste, we should face the problem of the ecosystem that we live in and try to solve the problems.
Kathy High
Source
"Kathy High: Visual/media Artist, Independent Curator, Educator." Kathy High: New Media Artist: About. Web. 24 May 2015. <http://kathyhigh.com/about.html>
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