FRIDMAN GALLERY

Heather Dewey-Hagborg

At the Temperature of My Body

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June 26 – August 9, 2019

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Fridman Gallery is honored to present At the Temperature of My Body, multidisciplinary artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. A meditation on intimacy and obsession in an emerging world of biotechnological rituals, the exhibition features three new bodies of work that correspond to three stages of love: desire, attachment, and grief. Through the frame of speculative narrative Dewey-Hagborg introduces us to science that is entirely real.

T3511 (2018) is a four-channel video installation made in collaboration with artist and filmmaker Toshiaki Ozawa. The narrative follows the true story of a biohacker who obtains an anonymous donor's saliva online and proceeds to fall in love with them through their biological data, ultimately identifying the individual and tracking them down. T3511 is a reflection on the ways in which biotechnology may mediate future relationships, as digital technology does today.

Lovesick (2019) is a sculptural installation of ten glowing vials containing an actual love virus that increases the production of oxytocin, the hormone responsible for feelings of empathy and bonding. The sculpture is accompanied by videos made with cellular microscopy, and by a polyphonic ballad which the artist and her partner sing intoning the letters of the proteins comprising oxytocin. Developed at a residency with a vaccine-discovery company, the work is meant to combat feelings of alienation and hate so prevalent today.

Spirit Molecule (2018-19) is an ongoing research project with artist and botanist Phillip Andrew Lewis, attempting to engineer psychoactive plants to contain human DNA. Upon entering the gallery, visitors will walk through a living greenhouse and a functional DIY genetic engineering lab staffed by a working scientist. If the project is successful, a plant engineered with the DNA of a lost loved one could be consumed as a genetic memorial.

The three projects in At the Temperature of My Body anticipate the role genetic data collection and engineering will play in shaping human psychology, behavioral traits, and aesthetics.

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Heather Dewey-Hagborg's work has been shown at numerous museums worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou, Victoria & Albert Museum, MoMA PS1, the New Museum, the Vienna Biennale, Daejeon Biennial, and Shenzhen Urbanism and Architecture Biennale. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Centre Pompidou, the New-York Historical Society, and the Wellcome Trust. Reviews of Dewey-Hagborg’s work have appeared in the New York Times, the BBC, the Guardian, Wired, CNN, and many other media outlets.

Dewey-Hagborg received PhD in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and was an Assistant Professor of Art and Technology Studies at the School of the Art Institute. She has presented at TED and the World Economic Forum, and is currently an AI Now! fellow.

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With support from Integral Molecular, University City Science Center, Esther Klein Gallery, Mu Artspace, STRP, New Network Normal, Abandon Normal Devices, and Fathomers.

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