Chimeric Antibodies 1 and 3
2011 - Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)
170 x 75 cm
Angela Su
From afar, Chimeric Antibodies by Angela Su may look like scientific drawings or botanical illustrations. Yet, upon closer look, sexual organs and imagined human and plant elements start becoming recognizable, and realistic. Each intricate, large-scale drawing indeed mixes human body parts, machines and other organic constructions as they become intertwined and inseparable. In doing so, the artwork challenges the way we perceive the body and explore the relationship between the human body and the machine, and between humans and nature. As a consequence, perceptions on sexuality, sex organs and representations of the body are questioned through a symbiosis between humans, machines and nature. The composition of Chimeric Antibodies I and 3 is inspired by ancient or alchemical imagination of energy flow and by old drawings of energy fields of atoms and molecules. Angela’s interest in old scientific illustrations relate to her questioning of how different they are from present day depictions, in the same way as maps could be, and how it has shaped our understanding of what “nature” is, the body, and defined notions of gender. The lack of visualizing technology and equipment in the past also leaves a lot of space for imagination. As the artist says, “there is always a negotiation or oscillation between the real and the imaginary. And this is what I try to convey and explore through my drawings.”
Angela Su’s practice is derived from her two divergent backgrounds–she received a degree in biochemistry in Canada before pursuing visual arts. Known for her intricate scientific drawings where delicacy of technique is contrasted with ambiguous and sometimes unsettling content, Angela Su combines in her works the analytical approach of a scientist with a deep sensitivity toward the felt, visceral experience. She connects her ideas through her imaginative drawings to this blending of science and alchemy, and recognizes the mutability or change, in species, whether human animal or the insect variety. Interested in science-fiction, medicine, and advanced computational technologies, her works (drawings, video, hair embroidery and installation) focus on the interrelations between our state of being and scientific technology, and more recently her mental and physical illness and social control.
