The Absence of Alice #1

Instance #1: 2008

The Absence of Alice

Instance #1

The first instance of The Absence of Alice was shown at the QUT Visual Art Gallery in February 2008.  The exhibition consisted of a series of interconnected works inspired by the experience of working with Saos-2 cells (a bone cancer cell line originally derived from an 11 year old girl in 1973), over a six month period at QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI). The works comment on the transformative capabilities and continual becoming of Alice’s Saos -2 cells, as well as the uncanniness of the cells: living fragments of an absent human body.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Absence of Alice was developed in a creative partnership between The Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI) and The Creative Industries Faculty (CIF) at QUT, Brisbane (Aus).

Completion of works would not be possible without the support from the Tissue Repair and Regeneration (TRR) Group and CIF technical staff.  Special thanks to Dr Tony Parker and Jacqui McGovern from IHBI and visual arts technician Michael Riddle for training and assistance with artwork production.  Many thanks are also extended to the supervisory team: Dr Dan Mafe, Dr Courtney Pedersen and Prof. Zee Upton.