For a year now we have been collectively fighting against COVID-19: the virus spread in Europe around this time last year and our attention immediately switched onto very different priorities while face masks and disinfectant gel became indispensable accessories.
The fear and anxiety caused by Coronavirus haven't subdued, but these last few months have re-shifted our attention onto science and on vaccines in particular with pharmaceutical companies producing them ending up in the spotlight. And, while vaccines have split the public opinion between pro and anti-vaxxers, some artists are providing us with their own unique views on viruses.
Laura Splan for example has a passion for science, but also for textiles and materials with special tactile qualities.
Born in Memphis and currently living in New York, this transdisciplinary American artist combines traditional techniques with science, creating unique artefacts exploring uncharted realms and examining complex biomedical issues in a very clever way.
Throughout the years she has created several pieces and installations combining these disciplines coming up with a speculative intravenous knitted scarf filled with the blood of the wearer ("Blood Scarf", 2002); a series of latch hook Petri dish-like canvases representing renderings of microorganisms including Ebola, Smallpox, Anthrax, Botulism and E. coli ("Vigilant", 2002) and a fragile facial peel negligee decorated with computerized embroidery representing the molecular structure of the neurotransmitter Serotonin (2009).
Beauty, domesticity and traditional crafts are usually subverted and reinvented in Splan's pieces in a disquieting, but mesmerizing way.
In 2004 Splan produced a series of doilies made with computerized machine embroidered lace mounted on velvet and representing different enveloped virus structure (HIV, SARS, Influenza, Herpes and Hepadna).
The soothing calmness of these traditional and at times kitsch items and their perfect symmetries and domestic connections were disrupted by the virus structures substituting with their protein spikes more common abstract geometries or floral elements, destroying in this way the therapeutic power of crafts and hinting at bio-terrorism attacks, pandemics and anti-microbial products.
The series, originally created in response to the first SARS outbreak (2002–2003), became even more relevant with the COVID-19 pandemic and, during the Spring of 2020, Splan continued her researches in this field and along these lines.
Now, with Coronavirus Splan's doilies have assumed new meanings: her lacework evokes not just the virus looming upon us all, but also the idea of the lockdown and the constant "stay at home" messages repeated on the news and amplified by social media.
Splan's "Doilies" will be on display during the third edition of the Bruges Triennial 2021 very aptly entitled "TraumA". The event (from 8th May to 26th September 2021) will explore the experience of the city and the contrasts that animate it, such as past and present, dreams and nightmares.
Laura Splan will display these works amidst the permanent collection of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw ter Potterie Museum, a former 13th-century church with an attached hospital, where they will assume new meanings and tackle dichotomies like science and religion, life and death, and themes such as pain, illness, health and caring.
In the meantime the artist has also got another Coronavirus-related project - "Unraveling" - on display as part of her exhibition "Entangled Entities" (until 26th march 2021) at the New Gallery at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville.
Developed in remote collaboration with scientists Edgar Davidson and Ben Doranz at biotech company Integral Molecular, the "Unraveling" series consists in an animation (Splan also did a series of prints of this project that she entitled "Renatured") created using molecular visualization software and SARS-CoV-2 protein models.
The artist manipulated the folded protein forms, known as "conformations" which determine biological function including infectivity and, using the software in unconventional ways, unraveled the spike protein and morphed the folded and unfolded forms.
The colours for this installation - salmon, lime, raspberry, violet, aquamarine and skyblue, just to mention a few - are borrowed from nature and chemical elements. Capturing our attention with its colours and dynamic movements, this new series reminds us about the ongoing challenges we have faced since last year, but also attempts to soothe our anxieties and troubled minds with its hypnotizing images, making us hope vaccines will be able to unravel the virus, allowing us all to go back to a much-needed normality that, for many of us, still remains a distant mirage.
"Unraveling" (animation) / "Termination Sequence: Into the Void" (sound) from Laura Splan on Vimeo.
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