subRosa
Projects
A reverse chronological listing of subRosa’s documented Performances & Installations, Residencies & Workshops, and Leaflet/Poster/Tactical Media Actions. Several projects have been re-staged repeatedly, with variations according to the site and context, as listed after the project descriptions.
Performances & Installations
Feminist Matter(s): Propositions and Undoings
This project initiates a collective inquiry about how feminist knowledge sharing might inform "bench-side" approaches to scientific method and science pedagogy. Gallery visitors are invited to sit at the different tables, alone or with another person, to think and talk about the themes, histories, and ideas embedded in each setting—and to share their responses in the space. We've combined notes, drawings, materials, and objects that reflect some of our own and others' meanderings and serious study in scientific, social and artistic pursuits. Our intent is to evoke intimate versions of the sometimes-improvised lab work- benches, work spaces and kitchens, in which many women scientists (and artists) did their first important work. In the spirit of Virginia Woolf's Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid, we invite you to do some "tea table thinking" here and in the spaces in which you live and work.
Pittsburgh Biennial, Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University. Curated by Astria Suparak, Sept 16-Dec 11, 2011.
*Download subRosa's handout for this installation. Side 1 (Map + Text). Side 2 (Refugia Manifesta)
Cell Track: Mapping the Appropriation of Life Materials
An installation and web site examining the privatization and patenting of human, animal, and plant genomes within the context of a history of eugenics. Cell Track draws attention to the increasing separation between the bodies that produce stem cells and genetic material, and the medical and pharmaceutical “products” derived from them. Maternal body cells and tissues like eggs, placentas, fetuses, and umbilical cord blood have become valuable “raw materials” mined for stem cell technologies. This development has opened the way for corporate science to profit from the manipulation and control of life—by patenting and licensing DNA sequences, engineered genes, stem cell lines, transgenic organisms, and the like. Cell Track raises the possibility of a activist, feminist-inspired embryonic stem cell research and resource lab, available to amateurs, artists, independent scientists, and non-profit researchers conducting experimental and contestational public health research and shared knowledge production.*
1. Bio-Difference: The Political Ecology, Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Univ. of Western Australia, Sept. 12–Oct. 3, 2004
2. YOUGenics3, curated by Ryan Griffis, Betty Rymer Gallery, Art Institute of Chicago, Dec. 4–Feb. 5, 2004
3. Deliciously Disposable Earth, curated by Carolina Loyola-Garcia, Three Rivers Arts Festival Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA, Jan. 17–Feb 22, 2008 (catalog)
4. Soft Power. Art and Technologies in the Biopolitical Age, curated by Maria Ptqk. Amarika Project at Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. Fall, 2009
Epidermic! DIY Cell Lab
The project’s goal was to familiarize visitors with the scientific processes and concepts of recombinant DNA and stem cell biotechnologies that underlie genetic engineering stem cell technologies. subRosa set up an amateur science performance and experimental lab in an art gallery. Visitors were able to watch a demonstration of the classic experiment of how to make recombinant DNA bacteria; learn how to “streak” petri dishes with their own cells; watch a short lecture demonstration about adult and embryonic stem cell cloning; learn how to make yogurt in their own kitchens as an example of cell culture; and make paper collages combining many sources of medical and alchemical imagery. Thus visitors were exposed to different ways in which science is represented to the public, and got a taste of public knowledge production in action.*
1. YOUGenics3, curated by Ryan Griffis, Betty Rymer Gallery, Art Institute of Chicago, February 18, 2005, with Elena Jovanova and Liz Rosenfeld.
2. Soft Power. Art and Technologies in the Biopolitical Age, curated by Maria Ptqk, Amarika Project at Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. October 30, 2009.
*Epidermic! DIY Cell Lab is documented on the subRosa “Selected Works” DVD.
International Markets of Flesh (IMF)
An audience-participatory performance and collective mapping of the global trafficking in human organs and tissues, IMF first took place on the altar of a 17th century converted convent church. Through participatory activities, demonstrations, & manipulation of life-size organ sculptures, the audience learned about the growing international demand for transplantable organs and tissues, and the political, social, and medical consequences these demands create. Participants wrote personal stories and rumors about organ harvesting and trade on a large Dymaxion World Map, and affixed organ stickers. The visual accumulation of facts, fiction, and testimony effectively demonstrated the dominant flows of the flesh-market worldwide--with demand coming from the North and supply coming from the South. Performers and audience also discussed changing ideas about the value of human life in the age of genetically engineered, globally distributed, and patented human body parts, filled in a form estimating the net worth of their body parts and labor, and received a Certificate of Flesh Worth.
1. XI International Performance Art Festival: Out of Focus, ExTeresa Arte Actual, Mexico City, July 11, 2003.
2. Arte Nuevo InteractivA’05, Patio Central del Centro Cultural Olimpio, Mérida,Yucatan, Mexico, June 25, 2005.
3. A Studio of Their Own : The Legacy of the Fresno Feminist Experiment, 1970, Conley Art Gallery, CSU Fresno, CA, Aug. 26-Oct. 11, 2009.
*Read about IMF in the Frakcija Performaing Arts Journal and download the Flesh Worth Form.
Constructa/vulva
Constructa/vulva, an interactive sculptural performance, was originally made for, and exhibited as part of, subRosa’s Knowing Bodies installation alongside sculptures, drawings, printed matter, a video & a web site in Fusion! Artists in a Research Setting (a show featuring the work of fellows of the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon). A 6’ x 5’ foot soft sculpture of a vulva, Constructa/vulva came with a wildly colorful collection of ‘parts’, including many sizes and shapes of labia, cervix, and clitori. Performers costumed as speculums assisted and encouraged audience members to create their ideal vulva by affixing their choices of parts to the velcroed surfaces of the Big Vulva. An instant portrait of the audience member with their creation was given to them.* The project honors the 1970s Feminist Women’s Health Movement, which encouraged women to get to know, love, and care for their bodies, and own their sexualities.
1. Fusion! Artists in a Research Setting,Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, Aug. 22–Sept. 29, 2000.*
2. EveryBody!: Visual resistance in feminist health movements, 1969-2009, curated by Bonnie Fortune. I-Space, Chicago. Sept. 11–Oct. 10, 2009. full photo set
*Constructa/vulva appears on the subRosa “Selected Works” DVD as part of documentation of our "Knowing Bodies" installation in Fusion! Artists in a Research Setting.
Out-Rage-Us-Joy
A poetic, performative installation, commissioned for an intergenerational feminist exhibition: “The Way That We Rhyme: Women, Art and Politics”. subRosa borrowed from the aesthetic forms and utopian philosophy of “Art Into Life” of the Russian Constructivists, and the “Wall of Respect” painted by African American activists in 1967, in order to initiate discussions of possible feminist joy and solidarity. Performers rode on two ‘rafts’ made from discarded tires, painted canvas, and billboard materials, and invited viewers aboard. Participants were invited to write shout-outs to inspirational figures, and decorate paper “Cones of Respect*” that were then pinned on a ‘pier post,’ or communications tower. The project demonstrated “the way that we work” in solidarity with each other and with other women, and invokes different social movements and philosophies that influence each of us.
The Way That We Rhyme: Women, Art & Politics, curated by Berin Golonu, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, March 29-June 29, 2008 (catalog).
*Download templates to make your own Cones of Respect (please send us photos!).
U-Gen-A-Chix
Originally staged inside the student center at a large US public university, U-Gen-A-Chix engaged students directly in an experience designed to stimulate critical conversations about eugenics as it relates to contemporary genetic engineering of humans, animals, and plants. Tandem performance booths were set up in a public space: one dispensing information on human egg donation and Assisted Reproductive Technologies, and the other offering taste tests of chicken-flavored GMO biscuits. After taste-testing the biscuit, students gave live video interviews about their willingness to eat genetically engineered foods if they enhanced energy performance during exams, and offered their opinions about the widespread use of GMOs, and related biological and social eugenic tendencies. (Note: This performance has been re-staged under several different titles, with variations in the set-up, emphasis, and audience participation in each case).*
1. “U-Gen-A-Chix,” YOUGenics2: Exploring the Social Implications of Genetic Technologies, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, Oct. 2, 2003.
2. “Express Choice,” Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, November 7, 2005.
3. “U-Gen-A-Chix,” Raw Symbiosis: Animals_Nature_Culture, 14th International Festival of Contemporary Arts—City of Women, Galerija Skuc, Ljubljana, Slovenia, October 13, 2008 (catalog).
*Video documentation of the 2008 performance is available at aspaceforliveart.org. Download the Cultures of Eugenics booklet from our refugia web space. The earliest version of this performance (“US Grade AAA Premium Eggs,” Bowling Green State University, Ohio, April, 2002.) did not include the biscuit-tasting activity, but it did feature its own web site.
Love is Strong as Death
Love is Strong as Death was a performance first staged as a convivial feast for the five senses inspired by the inscription (taken from the Song of Solomon) on a clock tower on the campus of Brown University. Participants congregated around festive tables of home-cooked food were invited to “listen, imagine, and respond to aspects and acts of political love.” Commissioned by Brown University’s Art Department, this work hearkened back to Plato’s Symposium by taking on the theme of “political love.” The body politic is addressed through the experience of the human sensorium and the embodied situation of sharing food, wine, and thinking together. The feast performance produced ephemera and objects that were then left in the venue as a sculptural installation.*
1. In Transit: from Object to Site, David Winton Bell Gallery and Department of Visual Art, Brown University, Providence, RI, September 15, 2006.
2.Pathogeographies (or, other people’s baggage), Gallery 400, University of Illinois, Chicago, July 6, 2007.
3. [documentation & objects only] Propagation, curated by Sabrina Raaf at Polvo, Chicago, Oct 13-Nov 4, 2006.
4. [documentation & objects only] Women Artists: Then and Now, Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, June 2–30, 2007.
* The feast has its own web site.
Yes Species
First developed for 1-0-1 Intersex: The two gendered system as a Human Rights Violation at Berlin's NGBK Gallery, "Yes Species" is a 20-minute performative tableau with video projection that imagines the meeting of three philosophers performing gender differently in a forest clearing: a live DJ mixing recorded vocalizations (Tsang); a performer (Wilding) standing in vats of red and green ink, blowing into vellum text balloons; and a performer (Willis) manipulating scrolls of text and stamping titles on the Yes Species book given away during performance. The work explores both the performativity of gender as theorized by Judith Butler, and the hope that “things can be thought differently” as Luce Irigaray has suggested.*
1. 1-0-1 Intersex: The two gendered system as a Human Rights Violation, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK), Berlin, June 17, 2005 (catalog)
2. Cyberfem. Feminisms on the Electronic Landscape, Espai d’art contemporani de Castelló (EACC), Spain, October 20, 2006
* Yes Species is documented on the subRosa “Selected Works” DVD. This project has its own web site, where you can download the Yes Species book.
Can You See Us Now? ¿Ya Nos Pueden Ver?
“Can You See Us Now ?” This major, year-long subRosa project for The Interventionists, mapped the intersections of women’s material and affective labor in cultures of production in North Adams, MA, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and investigated the similarities and differences of economic, cultural and every-day life effects of the outsourcing of labor and globalization on these towns, and on their local female labor force. Two large aerial wall maps of North Adams and Ciudad Juárez, with map pins and legends denoting “points of view” hung above a “forensic floor” that concealed 12 spaces filled with objects, texts, and clues beneath loose boards. The audience was encouraged investigate the connections between the maps, the contents beneath the floor, and a unique printed map distributed in the space. Another wall displayed five posters by Mexican artist/designer teams expressing concern and outrage about the continuing murder and disappearance of women in Ciudad Juárez.*
The “Clothing Tag Map,” a separate part of this project—displayed in the foyer of the Museum—allowed visitors to cut the tags off their clothing and pin them to a dimaxion world map according to the location where each garment was manufactured. Thus visitors actively explored, and demonstrated their own participation and complicity in globalized labor conditions.
1. The Interventionists: Art in the Social Sphere, curated by Nato Thompson, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA, May 2004–March 2005 (catalog, link).
2. Thought Crimes: The Art of Subversion [clothing tag map only], curated by Diane Barber, Diverse Works, Houston, TX, April 1–May 28, 2005.
* Can You See Us Now has its own web site. We have a limited quantity of printed maps remaining. Please write to subRosa to more information.
Biopower Unlimited!
For this project subRosa impersonated a “Biopower Team” of consultants performing an intervention into the BGSU campus Art and Tech Fair. The team set up a booth with a bank of computers on which participants could fill in an online biopower questionnaire that enabled them to compare how they were allocating their labor power and their leisure time--their total biopower. A team consultant then analyzed the results and gave advice about empowering life changes the participant could make. In collaboration with students, faculty, and community activists, subRosa also designed a consciousness-raising map revealing the intersections of biological/agricultural/digital technology cultures on the BGSU campus, in town, and in the surrounding animal Phactory Pharming enterprises which the team had documented. The map raised critical issues personalized by the biopower questionnaire, and was distributed campus-wide via “mooing” mailbox-kiosks. The biopower team also conducted a graduate colloquium and video screening on the issues of biopower and technology on campus.*
23rd Annual New Media & Art Festival, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, October, 2002
*This project has its own web site. A limited quantity of Cultures of Technology maps are still available.
The Sex & Gender Education Show
Styled as sex education class, subRosa’s first public performance employed time honored, low tech teaching methods to inspire critical thinking and knowledge-sharing about new Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) coming into wide use at the time, and their effects on female sexuality, reproductive choice, eugenics, and gender in the Biotech Century. Members posing as corporate and government agency representatives “registered” participants, recorded their data, and assigned them to one of 4 groupings: ATGC, the protein bases of DNA. After an illustrated crash course on reproductive genetics and ART methods, participants were given a workbook and a “reproductive choice” form to fill out. In a hilarious final “repro-tech mixer” participants mingled to find reproductive partner(s) matching their “choice form” preferences in order to “make a perfect baby the biotech way.” A spontaneous break-away group of Luddites desiring to have babies the old-fashioned sexy way highlighted this performance.*
1. "Sex & Gender in the Biotech Century," Digital Secrets conference, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, November, 2000
2. "The Sex and Gender Education Show," Hardware, Software, Wetware & Women conference, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, December, 2002
*The Sex and Gender Education Show has its own web site and is documented on the subRosa “Selected Works” DVD.
Expo EmmaGenics
Expo EmmaGenics was staged as a biotech trade show in a black box theatre in Mainz, Germany. It featured a range of seductive products to entice Europeans to take advantage of the advanced reproductive technologies (ARTs) being promoted by US corporations. Among the products brought from the “New World to the Old” were: “Megabyte Tasties,” “Human Caviar,” the “Zygote Monitor” and the “Palm Pilot XY,” all modeled on existing products critically detourned by subRosa. The interactive, theatrical event included the first performance of “MarthaART,”(“you’ve seen Martha Rosler and Martha Stewart, now Martha brings you ART—it’s a good thing”) an entertaining demonstration of how to use the new products and technologies to make perfect babies. In collaboration with local students, subRosa also organized a protest of the show by Biowitches Against Technological Reproduction (BATR) in front of the venue, in order to present contestational feminist viewpoints. *
1. Intermediale Festival: Art Happens!, Mainz, Germany, March, 2001
2. Corporate Art Expo 07 [documentation & objects only], curated by Shane Montgomery at The Lab, San Francisco, March 30–April 28, 2007
* Expo EmmaGencis has its own web site and is documented on the subRosa “Selected Works”DVD.
Residencies & Workshops
Look! Listen! A Week With | Out Women
A 10-day subRosa residency in WHW’s Galerija Nova, Zagreb, Croatia. Different groups of people were invited to daily evening “Salons” that addressed a variety of concerns elicited through discussions about everyday life and political conditions. These were followed next day by a “manifestation” in appropriate city locations. Photos and documentation of the prior day’s activities were posted daily in the gallery space, along with notes about “What We Heard” and “What are Your Demands?” The residency culminated in a performative feast at the Student Center Club, Teater &TD, University of Zagreb, during which participants hailed one another, unveiled a plan for a “Subversity” and revisited the connections that were made. Artist residency (at WHW’s Galerija Nova) & performance (at Student Center Club, Teater &TD), Unversity of Zagreb, Croatia, May 31–June 8, 2008.
Gestation Workshop
A collaborative performance art workshop led by subRosa and Elena Marcevska in Skopje, Macedonia, with an interdisciplinary group of scholars, artists & activists. We created a tourist-like map to make visible the “hidden feminist histories” of the city, which included historic and present-day realities and concerns experienced by women of different ages and ethnic and religious backgrounds. Sponsored by the Faculty of Communication & Media Arts, New York University Skopje, Macedonia, June 10–19, 2008.
Biopower! A Walking Tour of Biotechnology, University of Illinois
A derive investigating the Universities’ GMO plant research greenhouses, experimental corn fields, genetic engineering of cattle, and the “visible cow.” As part of the Crossroads in Cultural Studies conference, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, June 28, 2004.
Cloning Cultures
Three-day workshop led by subRosa for design, art & fashion students as part of Art + Biology Talks, LaSalle-SIA College of Arts, Singapore, Jan. 10-13, 2003.
Matrixial Technologies
Workshop led by subRosa and Margaret Tan for Version>03 Digital Arts Convergence: Technotopia vs. Technopocalypse, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, March 29, 2003.
Knowing Bodies Residency and Seminar
Residency, seminar, and collaborative quilt- and poster-making with artists & health care practitioners while discussing the comparative conditions of reproductive health-care for women in Canada and the US. St. Norberts Art Centre, Winnipeg, Canada, April 14-17, 2001.
Leaflet/Poster/Tactical Media Actions
Becoming Autonomous Zones Poster Action and Manifesto
Presented at OBN 's Very Cyberfeminist International conference, Hamburg, Germany, Dec. 13, 2001.
CeLLular mUTaTIONS
Distribution of subRosa's founding leaflet inside provocative “biohazard” travel kits. Next Five Minutes 3, Amsterdam, March, 1999.
Does She or Doesn’t She? (Cheaper by the Dozen)
subRosa built a giant nest and staged a sit-in and photo-shoot on the steps of the neoclassical Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, which at the time was home to Carnegie Mellon's Department of Biology and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. Photos from this action were featured in our second newsletter @SecondOpinion* alongside an essay about the risks of becoming an egg-donor. Pittsburgh, PA, September 1999.
*An Online version of @SecondOpinion can be viewed here.
Race for the Cure intervention
subRosa set up a table and distributed free lemonade and copies of our first newsletter, @SecondOpinion*, at “Race for the Cure,” Pittsburgh, PA, May 9, 1999.
*An Online version of @SecondOpinion can be viewed here.
Smart Mom web site
This web project detourns the concept of Smart T-shirt technology (developed for remote battlefield medicine by the U.S. military) to the uses of pregnancy surveillance and assisted reproductive technologies, 1999 (redesigned in 2000 & 2009).
