Transformation Studies is a collaborative mixed media exhibition by artist Svenja Kratz with Associate Professor Brad Sutherland and Dr Jo-Maree Courtney from the UTAS School of Medicine. With a focus on transformation, the works ponder the molecular and chemical elements that give rise to all forms of life and the way in which we emerge and return as foundational matter to the universe.

The show was initiated during a 2021/22 ANAT Synapse Art-Science residency and forms part of Posthuman Genetic Legacies, an ongoing series of narrative artworks that reflect on the artist’s reproductive challenges and the desire to establish cellular offspring as an alternative genetic legacy via cell and tissue culture technologies. This exhibition documents the different cell culture experiments conducted at the School of Medicine with the aim of establishing an immortal artist cell line for use in creative and scientific research.

The Phase 1 series gives insight into the failed trails to immortalise fibroid cells, originally isolated from the artist’s uterus in 2019. These lead into other works that show the successful transformation of blood cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in April 2022. iPSCs have stem cell-like properties and have the capacity to become any other cell type including 3D aggregates that mimic early embryo and organ development.

The Phase 2 series presents a paired showcase of the iPSCs and various transformative outcomes including embryoid bodies, partially differentiated cell cultures imaged with fluorescent microscopy and pericytes. Pericyte cells grow along capillaries and are central in blood flow regulation. They were created to become a stock cell for ongoing use by Brad Sutherland’s research group into Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and Multiple Sclerosis (MS), thus allowing for the ongoing use and proliferation of the artist’s ‘cell babies’.

Other works within the series further explore the connections between cellular transformation and the vast cycles of life and death on a cosmic scale. Phase 3, for example, a collaboration between Kratz and Dr. Jo-Maree Courtney, integrates images of the artist's iPSCs and pericytes, incorporating visual motifs evocative of DNA to signal the artist’s pursuit of an alternative genetic legacy through "cellular offspring." By merging cellular imagery with representations of galaxies and cosmic structures, these works reflect on the impermanence of life and the inevitable return of all matter to dust, suggesting that all forms ultimately dissolve back into the universe.

You can download the floor sheet here.