THE IMMORTALISATION OF BILLY APPLE
-
Starkwhite is pleased to launch The Immortalisation
of Billy Apple® (Stage
2) on Thursday 19 April with an installation that will run
to 25 April 2012.
The Immortalisation of Billy
Apple® is a collaborative project by Billy
Apple and Craig Hilton where art is in the service of science -
Apple's cell line is being used in studies that will directly
benefit cancer and immunology research - and science serves the
artist to enhance and protect the artist's brand by immortalising
his biological tissue in perpetuity. This transaction theoretically
ensures that the brand (and the artist) can last forever,
unconstrained by death.
I consent to the
wide distribution of cell lines derived from my blood, including
deposit with the American Type Culture Collection
cell bank. I understand that this may
enable unrestricted use of my cells outside my control,
including the potential analysis of my DNA.
-Billy Apple 12/05/2009
In the project, Craig Hilton and Billy Apple have provided the
setting for science to blend with art. During the 2009
'immortalisation' process, Billy Apple B-lymphocytes were isolated
and grown in tissue culture media. These cells were then virally
transformed and can now grow indefinitely in cell culture medium.
Without such a transformation, the cells would have had, like the
artist they are derived from, a limited lifespan. The newly
immortalised cells are housed in a container that mimics the
precise environmental conditions - temperature, humidity, nutrition
and contamination-free conditions - present in the artist's
body.
The Billy Apple® cell line was presented publicly as an art
project in The Immortalisation of Billy
Apple® at Starkwhite from 6-10 May 2010. The launch
celebrated a world first because for the first time human tissue
has been made available for the purposes of both art and scientific
research.
On April 12, 2012 University of Auckland's School of Biological
Sciences sent this living artwork to the American Type Culture
Collection (ATCC) to be added to its collection. Headquartered in
Manassas, Virginia, the ATCC is the world's premier biological
culture repository. It was established to carry out research to
improve the propagation, preservation, classification, and
characterization of cultures and to develop new and enhanced
culture products.
The Billy Apple® cells are the first artwork to be
collected by the ATCC, creating further dialogue and
interdisciplinary opportunity, which highlights the ongoing nature
of this project and immortality of these cells. As the cells
usefulness (as an art or science resource) increases, so does the
significance of this artist's biological tissue. Replication of the
artwork/genetic material will now be exponentially reproduced
globally.
The Immortalisation of Billy
Apple® (Stage 2) at Starkwhite is
timed to coincide with the transfer of 60 million Billy
Apple® cells to the American Type Culture
Collection.
Billy Apple®'s career spans
three continents and six decades. He has been at the forefront of
the evolution of pop and conceptual art, and continues to test arts
perimeters. His diverse practice has covered many fields but it is
his exploration of new technologies and media that has led Apple to
work collaboratively with scientists and medical professionals
since the sixties. Current projects include finding the center of
the continent of Zealandia and exploration of the lost eighth
wonder of the world, the Pink and White Terraces in Lake Rotomahana
in collaboration with marine geologist, Dr Cornel de Ronde. Billy
Apple is represented by Starkwhite, Auckland; Hamish McKay Gallery,
Wellington and The Mayor Gallery, London.
Craig Hilton is a New Zealand
scientist, artist and educator. After completion of a PhD in
Biochemistry at the University of Otago, New Zealand, he took a
position at Harvard Medical School and later at the University of
Massachusetts as an oncologist and immunologist. He returned to New
Zealand in 2003 and completed an MFA at the University of Auckland,
Elam School of Fine Arts. He is interested in: the interaction of
science and art, particularly art/science collaborations i.e.
those with genuine art and science value/outputs; how art might be
able to contribute to dialogue regarding science, molecular
biology, biological discovery, biotechnology etc; and the cultural
implications of the these revolutionising technologies
This project is entirely dependent on the goodwill
and understanding of Professor Rod Dunbar, School of Biological
Sciences, University of Auckland. The project collaborators also
wish to acknowledge the support of: Daniel Verdon, Thermo Fisher
Scientific, Unitec New Zealand and The American Type Culture
Collection.
Located in New Zealand on Auckland's Karangahape Road,
Starkwhite presents a programme of artists' projects, solo shows by
represented and invited artists, independently curated exhibitions
and occasional forays into new music and other interdisciplinary
practices.
Please contact the gallery for further information and
images.
Starkwhite
510 Karangahape Road, Auckland, New Zealand
Tel. +64 9 3070703
Monday to Friday: 11.00am to 6.00pm
Saturday: 11.00am to 5.00pm
starkwhite@starkwhite.co.nz
http://www.starkwhite.blogspot.com/
/
< Exhibition List