See more objects with the tag , experimental materials, adaptation, evolution.

Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

2019

2025

  • You found it!

BioMess, 2019

It is dated 2019. Its medium is specimins, hybridoma cells, display cases. It is a part of the department.

Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr probe the fetishization of technological approaches to life. BioMess is composed of 2 parts, presented in luxury display cases. The first consists of natural history specimens, illustrating adaptations that evolve in response to the environment and demonstrating that life is context dependent. The second presents a semi-living organism, designed by humans and dependent on technology—the bioreactor—for its survival. As humans engineer living systems, life forms are isolated and reduced to their component parts, in essence privileging information over context. As Catts asserts, “it is DNA chauvinism.”

It is credited Courtesy of The Tissue Culture and Art Project.

  • Footed Bowl (USA)
  • mold-blown favrile glass.
  • Gift of Stanley Siegel, from the Stanley Siegel Collection.
  • 1975-32-14
  • Falcon's Hood, early 17th century
  • label: tooled leather, silk velvet embroidered with metallic yarns and metal....
  • Museum purchase through gift of Elsie De Wolfe.
  • 1950-90-1

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial.

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

For higher resolution or commercial use contact ArtResource.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/2318798876/ |title=BioMess, 2019 |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=11 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>