BioCare: Feminist Labs and the Aesthetics of Care

Abstract

In the science lab objectivity is key. Protocols are set in place to ensure that experiments go on without interference, without subjectivity, unnecessary inquiry, emotion or caring. These do not seem to be sites of experimentation or creativity. What can artists do for scientific practice? How can they make messy the sterile space of the lab, breakdown the barriers imposed upon it, open up the walls that conceal the lab from the public eye and create feminist interventions that make these spaces safe and accessible? What does a feminist lab look like? Exploring practices of care and maintenance conducted by bioartists my paper will address and celebrate the intimate and meaningful interactions occurring between artists and their semi-living subjects/muses/collaborators. Caring for semi-living entities (the term semi-living as defined by Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr to describe transgenic beings that occupy an in-between status as living creatures that rely upon outside forces to stay alive) requires an excess of emotional, physical and intellectual labour on the part of the artist. The regimented masculine lab protocols are broken and reframed through the eyes of artists, such as Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, WhiteFeather Hunter, Nicole Clouston, KathyHigh, and Tarsh Bates, who allow themselves to celebrate their maintenance activities, engage with nonhuman bodies and feel empathy towards their specimens. In the laboratory, during the works production, and, through the maintenance and pedagogical practices of public display, feminist bioartists impart their knowledge of scientific processes and their caring empathy for nonhuman life.