[-empyre-] October: This Mess We're In Week 4.5

[Tarsh Bates]

Thanks Kathy and WhiteFeather for your contributions. Your comments 
about control, violence and management have provoked a lot of thoughts, 
which I will discuss further. Last week was a trouble shooting week for 
the show and recovery from the conference. Control, violence and 
management indeed!

This is a bit late, but I want to introduce the last mess of guests for 
October...

*Helen Pynor* is an artist whose practice explores philosophically and 
experientially ambiguous zones such as the life-death boundary. Her work 
is informed by in-depth residencies in scientific institutions, most 
recently The Francis Crick Institute, London; The Max Planck Institute 
of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden; and The Heart and Lung 
Transplant Unit, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. Pynor frequently 
collaborates with members of the broader community whose embodied 
experiences connect with the themes of her work. Pynor has exhibited 
widely nationally and internationally including at The National Taiwan 
Museum of Fine Arts; The National Centre for Contemporary Art, Russia; 
Science Gallery Dublin; Science Gallery London; FACT, Liverpool UK; 
Wellcome Collection, London; and The Australian Centre for Photography. 
She has received an Honorary Mention at Prix Ars Electronica, Linz, and 
national awards in Australia. Pynor holds a Bachelor of Science (1st 
Class Hons), a Bachelor of Visual Arts, and a PhD. Pynor lives and works 
in Sydney and London.

*Marietta Radomska* is a feminist philosopher and transdisciplinary 
Gender Studies scholar. She works as a Postdoc at the Department of 
Thematic Studies – unit: Gender Studies, Linköping University, Sweden, 
within the research area of Gender, Nature, Culture and The 
Posthumanities Hub. Since 1 July 2018 Radomska has also been a Visiting 
Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Cultures, University of 
Helsinki, Finland. She holds a PhD in Gender Studies (Linköping 
University, SE), Research MA in Gender and Ethnicity (Utrecht 
University, NL) and MA in Philosophy specialised in Social Communication 
(Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan,PL). Currently, Radomska works on 
the research project “Ecologies of Death: Environment, Body and Ethics 
in Contemporary Art”, funded by The Swedish Research Council 
(Vetenskapsrådet) International Postdoc Grant. She is the founder of The 
Eco- and Bioart Research Network, co-director of The Posthumanities Hub, 
a founding member of Queer Death Studies Network, co-founder of The 
International Network for Ecocritical and Decolonial Research, and 
co-coordinator of GEXcel International Collegium for Advanced 
Transdisciplinary Gender Studies research strand “Death Studies: 
Queerfeminist Materialist Perspectives” (together with Nina Lykke and 
Tara Mehrabi). Radomska is the author of the monograph Uncontainable 
Life: A Biophilosophy of Bioart (2016).

*Mary Maggic* is a non-binary artist working at the intersection of 
biotechnology, cultural discourse, and civil disobedience. Their work 
spans documentary video, scientific methodology, public workshopology, 
performance, and large scale installation. Maggic's most recent projects 
Open Source Estrogen and Estrofem! Lab generate DIY protocols for the 
extraction and detection of estrogen hormone from bodies and 
environments, demonstrating its micro-performativity and potential for 
mutagenesis, i.e. gender-hacking. They hold a BSA in Biological Science 
and Art from Carnegie Mellon University and a MS in Media Arts and 
Sciences from MIT Media Lab and have had the privilege to exhibit and/or 
perform at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), OK Center (Linz), Haus 
der elektronischen Kunst (Basel), Jeu de Paume (Paris), Institute of 
Contemporary Arts (London), and Spring Workshop (Hong Kong). 

*Mike Bianco* is an artist, curator, researcher, activist, cook, and 
beekeeper. Bianco’s art practice is invested in socially engaged art, 
and focuses on issues of politics, environment, sustainability, 
community activism, energy decline, and the impending “century of 
crisis.” Bianco’s work has been exhibited in numerous venues, ranging 
from the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, in Western Australia, to 
the Kenpoku Art Festival in Ibaraki, Japan.

*Sarah Hermanutz* is a Canadian artist working at the intersections of 
performance, technology, and ecology. Her sculptures, installations, and 
live performance experiments are preoccupied with wetlands, amphibious 
creatures, and the mysteries of social cognition. Together with dancers, 
audiences, musicians, and other human/non-human ‘props’, she explores 
confusion, affection, vulnerability, survival, horror, terror, desire, 
and the aesthetic seductions of myth-making.  She is a founding member 
of Lacuna Lab, and is based in Berlin and Weimar, Germany. Her 
performances and projects have been presented in Canada, the USA, 
Australia, and across Europe.

Take it away...

t


-- 

Co-Convenor Quite Frankly: Its a Monster Conference 18-19 October 2018

Curator This Mess We're In 13 October - 2 November 2018 Unhallowed Arts 
Festival 2018

Postdoctoral Research Associate • SymbioticA • School of Human Sciences 
• The University of Western Australia • M309, 35 Stirling Hwy Crawley WA 
6009 Australia • T +61 8 6488 5583 • M +61 (0) 432 324 708 • E 
natarsha.bates at research.uwa.edu.au

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which I live: The 
Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation. I acknowledge their ancestors and 
pay my respects to their elders; past, present and future.