The Contamination of Alice #2 is an installation that explores the interplay between life, decay, and transformation, highlighting the creative potential inherent in unexpected encounters. This work features agar sculptures cast from facial impressions of an 11-year-old girl, Alice, the original donor of the Saos-2 bone cancer cell line. Modified with diverse nutrients, these agar forms become fertile grounds for the growth of various bacterial and fungal colonies, along with other organisms such as microscopic mites and maggots.

This installation emphasises the notion that life is a continuous process of proliferation and becoming, where even decay and death are not finalities but rather the beginnings of new cycles. The living colonies that emerge and evolve on the agar heads serve as a metaphor for how life reclaims and transforms, illustrating the beauty and unpredictability of organic processes. By presenting decay as a vital component of life's continuum, the work challenges viewers to reconsider their perceptions of life, death, and the regenerative power of nature.

The Contamination of Alice: Instance #2 situates itself within a broader conversation on the resilience and interconnectedness of living systems, suggesting that even in the most unexpected and accidental interactions, there lies potential for new beginnings and creative emergence.

This work forms part of The Absence of Alice series.