TABOO - TRANSGRESSION - TRANSCENDENCE

Historically, popular perceptions of science reinforced clear divisions between the living and the dead, the body and the environment, the human and the non-human. Bioscientific Imaginaries brings together three of the foremost figures in bioart—a practice in which artists use biological technologies and materials as art media—to challenge conventional assumptions surrounding science and its methods. Using strategies of play and humor, artists Kathy High, Marta de Menezes, and Jennifer Willet question commonly held beliefs in the autonomy of the body, revealing it to be but one component in a complex system. All three artists work with themes of gender, sexuality, and love to reimagine scientific imagery and methods. Works on view in Bioscientific Imaginaries explore the ways that science can both illuminate and complicate questions about the nature of identity, relationships, and the body.

For Bioscientific Imaginaries, Kathy High, Marta de Menezes, and Jennifer Willet began a series of communications—love letters—through images and texts about their professional and personal relations, meditating on the discourse they share and areas of tension. Part of these love letters can be read here https://www.alleghenyartgalleries.com/love-letters

Bioscientific Imaginaries is curated by Byron Rich and Paula Burleigh. This exhibition, on view September 15 – November 2, 2020 at Allegheny College Art Galleries, Meadville PA, USA is supported in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Exhibition: https://www.alleghenyartgalleries.com/bioscientific-imaginaries