●●●●○

Blood has always occupied a space between fascination and repulsion in the human psyche. It transcends the binary of the worldly and sacred given its centrality in both science and spirituality. It is at once bound to both life and death. As such, blood, in all its forms and with all its literal, symbolic and mythical meanings, is the point of focus for the Science Gallery’s latest exhibition, BLOOD. It is arguably their most ambitious and well organised show to date, and, if the preview is anything to go by, it will also be one of their most successful. Its merit lies in the variety of ideas amongst works spanning most media which range from the immediately accessible to the more dark, complex and difficult to grapple with. For the most part, it is a well executed balancing act of hard science, high art and sensory enjoyment.

 

Legion is one of the most noteworthy pieces, a new work by Marc Quinn, the artist who gained distinction with Self — a cast of his head made out of 8 pints of his own blood, frozen. It is a continuation of the artist’s exploration of the link between art and science as well as beauty and corporeality. A challenging work, it features a sculpture of a sleeping baby composed of wax and dried animal blood, who lies as though in incubation, occupying a space between the real and surreal. It provokes complex questions of worth, value, vulnerability and selfishness in humanity.

Hermann Nitsch is another artist in show who has made blood a key material and reference point in his artistic process. Playing in the exhibition is a video recording of his group performance piece 138th action which ebbs and flows in its intensity, modulating between disturbing and regenerative in its three-hour running time. A blood-covered smock from the performance, a document of the work, hangs ominously outside where the film is show, perhaps serving as a sort of warning of what is to come.

 

[gss ids=”5064,5063,5061″ style=”width:100%” “height:120%”]

 

 

In STAINS™, Brooklyn born artist Chella Quint tackles head on the corporate-sponsored shame that has come to surround menstrual blood. The work takes the form of a mock aspirational brand — along the lines of Always, Tampax or similar — featuring adverts, spokesmodels, branding and a CEO. It critiques the pressure exerted by such companies through discourses of “leakage fear”, leading women to buy into the misbelief that periods are something to be humiliated and distressed by. Viewers are encouraged to become brand ambassadors, use the hashtag #periodpositive on social media and modify their clothes with STAINS™ logos. A jewellery collection hopes to raise funds for accurate and unbranded menstruation education at periodpositive.com.

 

Also present at the preview was Stephen Cousins, the National Donor Services Manager of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service, there to mark the launch of a new mobile app, Giveblood.ie, which hopes to facilitate engagement with blood donation. He praised the exhibition as a vehicle for raising awareness amongst the public, especially a younger audience, of the critical need for blood. Indeed, the piece My Type by biomedical scientist Maria Phelan allows visitors to find out their blood group and may encourage people to think about donating.

 

However, Cousins spoke next to an entire wall of work by Franko B. The artist, who discontinued his line of demanding blood-based performances due to the toll they took on his health, has two sets of work on display made up of canvases carefully embroidered with scarlet thread. Woof Woof references ideas of strength and vulnerability which blood connotes, whilst Lover is dedicated to the organ transplant which saved the life of the artist’s partner. The inherent contradiction between a celebration of homosexual love and the presence of an organisation within the exhibition which does not allow for men who have sex with men to donate blood is glaring, hypocritical and simply unfortunate. Hopefully this accidental conflict of interest will raise as many questions on the politics of blood as some of the artworks on display.

 

BLOOD runs from October 24 to January 25 at the Science Gallery, Pearse Street. All images from the Science Gallery website.