[[UPDATE: Wim Delvoye was a last-minute cancellation at Biology & Art. His replacement is Jens Hauser, a Paris based art curator, writer and filmmaker. His keynote is 9:00 - 10:00 AM]]
Much has been said about Belgian conceptual artist Wim Delvoye and his peculiar habits of building shit machines, better known as Cloaca or eating machines, and tattooing pigs on his artfarm outside of Beijing.
Devoyle will discuss his “filthy” aesthetics and more things bio-art this Saturday night in New York, when he delivers the keynote speech at the Biology and Art: Two Worlds or One? conference at the NY Academy of Sciences. He’s always a big draw, but equally interesting will be four conversations at the day-long event where a prominent bio artist and scientists—MIT, Columbia and Harvard are all in the house—specializing in their area of particular interest sit down to compare notes on the interplay between science and art.
The focus: “how biological objects—whether viruses, animals, plants, cells, or organelles—become an inspiration for certain artists' work, and how scientists—ever so particular about accuracy and specificity—respond to such artistic representations.”
Pairings include sculptor Mara G. Haseltine and Columbia biophysicist Wayne A. Hendrickson; Sculptor Laura Splan and MIT biologist Jonathan A. King; Dutch kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen and Harvard’sAndrew A. Biewener; and sculptor Michael Joaquin Grey and neuroscientist Gabriel Robles-De-La-Torre.
Check back Monday on Underwire for images and quotes from the conference.
