TABOO - TRANSGRESSION - TRANSCENDENCE

Bodies and bodily parts encoded as feminine and queer have historically been linked as a generative medium for the emergence of biological monstrosity. From narratives on cancer and disease to the monstrous maternal, the scientific and medical gaze that examines these bodies and bodily parts looks upon them from a lens and framework that cannot escape its history of fetishisation and objectification of gendered embodied difference. This presentation will explore the historical and contemporary connotations of generative and gendered monstrosity in the studies of science and medicine by examining them in regards to the artist’s works Return of the Teratoma and Self-Care, which look at the monstrous recurring figure of the Teratoma and the relationship between breast cancer and genetic inheritance of disease, respectively. Looking at the entanglements between cultural media (especially that of the horror genre), clinical praxis, and politics, this presentation aims to use these artworks as a starting point for critical examination about why particular bodies and bodily components are regarded with suspicion and distrust and how this influences contemporary issues in healthcare and biopolitics.