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subRosa: Refugia

In his book The Biotech Century, Jeremy Rifkin uses the phrase "second genesis" to designate the rapid proliferation of practices organized around genetic creation. Scientists working in molecular biology, genetic engineering, and transgenic technologies are fashioning new organisms, along with new ethical dilemmas, often with little public knowledge or debate. Indeed, while some people may be aware of the controversy surrounding genetically modified foods, there is considerably less knowledge about the actual scientific and economic practices associated with the creation of new forms of life in general, or the methods for "assisting" human reproduction in particular, and there is little attention paid to the long-term genetic, cultural, and economic consequences of many of these untested experimental biotechnologies.

Until recently, that is. Thanks to the ingenious and subversive efforts of the cyberfeminist collective subRosa, many people across the world are reflecting on the often troubling implications found at the intersection of science and reproduction. Combining interactive performances, "actions," publications, multi-media educational projects, and an extensive website, the five-member group of artists and theorists (Faith Wilding, Steffi Domike, Lucia Sommer, Laleh Mehran, and Hyla Willis) has dedicated itself to raising awareness of the decidedly complex implications of biotechnology as it relates to race, gender, and the power of developed countries over those that I are less so.

Since 1998, the group, which was named after several famous Rosas (including Rosa Luxemburg, Rosalind Franklin, and Rosie the Riveter), has focused predominantly on Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs). Citing a need to address "the gendered and racialized effects of this branch of biotechnology," subRosa highlights the ways in which ostensibly benign, privatized techniques for grappling with infertility do, in fact, have broader social implications. "We wanted to analyze how in the Biotech Century, the female body has become the preeminent laboratory and rich body-parts mine for a lucrative and largely untested medical/pharmaceutical industry," they explain, adding, "Specifically we wanted to address and de-code repro-tech's historical connections to eugenics and colonizing ideologies."

subRosa's recent endeavors use simultaneously humorous and chilling tactics to raise awareness about this topic. With US Grade AAA Premium Eggs, a performance staged at Bowling Green State University in 2002, for example, the team set up a booth in the school's student union and, via a website, encouraged students to calculate the economic worth of their genetic material. Women deemed somehow abnormal, artists, and those of non-Northern European descent scored low on the genetic desirability chart, while those fitting the selective criteria earned a special Certificate of Flesh Worth. As participants made calculations, they experienced first-hand the implications of the very common practice on college campuses of soliciting young students for their eggs. Employing humor and exaggeration, alongside hard information, rather than didactically telling students what to think, subRosa let people interpret their own experiences. Emphasizing the importance of an embodied response, the group notes that with this tactic, "the reassurance of an authorizing voice is removed and the participant/performer must think for herself."

With their project Knowing Bodies (2001), subRosa created a similarly active understanding of yet another troubling trend. Using a large, flamboyant, soft sculpture with Velcro-attachable parts, the group invited participants to reconstruct a vulva, thereby calling attention to the increasingly common surgical manipulation of women's bodies for "aesthetic" reasons. Both of these projects highlight subRosa's insistence on engaging people in an active way to question technology from a feminist perspective. The forthcoming modules of their Refugia project--which will include, among other things, an informational website and a book on the intersections of postcolonial discourse, cyberfeminism, and biotechnology--can be combined into one large-scale installation or exhibited separately in various media and settings.

It's important to note that all of subRosa's efforts are reproducible--indeed, the group hopes that other artists and activists will adapt their materials and tactics, and will critically engage with the questions surrounding the fast-moving "second genesis" that is impacting all of us.

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THIS PROJECT'S CATEGORIES: Emerging Fields > Installation | The Built Environment | Labor | Politics | 2002