Meanings and Materialities
Meanings and Materialities
Exhibition 6–15 June
Open every day 12:00-18:00Cynthia Blanchette
Mixed materials, 2024.In the past, those on pilgrimages collected souvenirs of different precious metals which were said to have curative properties. Today, the term ‘parasitic souvenir’ describes the microbes one collects from the external environment during travel. Microbes as both souvenirs taken and gifted through contact produce exchanges imbued with meaning and consequence. As diseases stemming from depleted microbiomes rise, the future of medicine might find itself throwing scat parties. In the work,Shit Load, faecal microbial transplants (FMT’s) are conceived as a highly sought after curative commodity.
Cynthia Blanchette is a Canadian artist-researcher based in Finland, working as a Doctoral Researcher in Contemporary Art through the Department of Art and Media at Aalto University. Cynthia’s current research interests fall into the abject facets of human-microbial-technological evolution. Within her practice she re-evaluates ubiquitous cultural/societal notions of the lived experience through the artistic practices of ideation drawing, artifact collecting, bioart, and textile architecture. This work builds upon her MA research which focused on wetlands, arguing that the bog is a concrete metaphor for the darker aspects of contemporary life and fears, and as such is considered ‘stray’.
www.cynthiablanchette.com