“Cellular Performance (2011-2012)” by Verena Friedrich

Exhibiting Artist(s):

• Verena Friedrich

This project explores the language used to advertise “cosmeceuticals”, an emerging class of skin care products claiming pharmaceutical benefits at the cellular level. This language is taken literally here and applied to the “material” it refers to. Skin cells have been manipulated in the laboratory to form letters and words which in effect “re-incarnate” the promises of the cosmeceutical industry. While this biological material is shown to be controllable to a certain extent, moments of successful stabilization are quickly followed by entropy.