[-empyre-] Art, Virus, and Immunity

[Dingquan Xie]

Art, Virus, and Immunity



Dear all



Thanks to Renate and Junting for inviting me. I apologize for my delayed post. Since December 2019, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of many people. While we are still in this pandemic, many have already written about the virus. As an artist, I have also been trying to understand the relationship between art and virus.



We know that the virus and the human immune system are in a dialectical relationship―much as the virus and the security system in a computer. In fact, the 1918 Influenza Pandemic has altered all humans because there were a large number of human survivors who acquired antibodies in their immune system. [As Jonathan mentioned in his post, the virus becomes a part of our biological machineries.] In a sense, it is the virus that prompts a radical change in this self-regulated ecosystem on the planet. Of course, the virus is a threat to civilization, and we must take all measures to control its thread. And through the research of vaccines, we make sure that civilizations continue. Yet the research on vaccines itself also alters the ways in which the human immune system would naturally evolve. Although more research is needed to further our understandings on this matter, there is no doubt that the vaccine is changing this self-regulated ecosystem as we understand it.



I want to use this virus metaphor to examine art. In the history of art, progress comes with such radical changes, not unlike the virus. Duchamp’s (re)definition of art is an example of “pandemic.” So, my question is―what could be the “virus” in the artworld of today? I think there are some similarities between the ways in which Duchamp changed art and the virus changed human body. And I have a few hunches:



1: It is destructive to the privileged knowledge system in existence

2: It is prone to rapid spread

3: It is inter-regional or global by nature,

4: It is produced within the existing civilization, but mutated through accidents



Well, it seems that these are already existing art methods. But putting all these viewpoints together, there is also a process of coexistence and fusion. Again, this process is a bit like the virus; only after many changes of the host, the virus then becomes the source of a “pandemic” in the ecosystem.



                                                                Dingquan Xie

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