lynn mowson

bloodlines: tracing connections from bodies to biotechnologies

This paper outlines my new research project/art installation bloodlines, which focuses on the emergent biotechnology industries and their reliance upon sourcing tissue samples from donor animals and slaughterhouse co-products such as foetal blood.  This research project connects extant research/artworks such as slink, which focused on the death of pregnant cattle and the sourcing of foetal by-products, with boobscape, which focused on lives and death of dairy cattle, together with new artworks that represent biotechnology innovations such as in-vitro meat and bio-fabricated leather.  These works will be linked together by a web of interconnected fluid-lines; urine, milk and blood, which will trace the pathways from bodies to products.  In doing so, bloodlines makes the connections between the bodies of agricultural animals and biotechnology both visible and visceral.

lynn mowson is a sculptor whose practice is driven by the entangled relationships between human and non-human animals, in particular agricultural animals. Her sculptural research has been featured the books The Art of the Animal, Lantern Press, 2015, Carol J Adam’s Neither Man nor Beast, Bloomsbury, 2018, Animaladies, Bloomsbury (forthcoming).  She has exhibited widely in Australia, and her work was included in SPOM: Sexual Politics of Meat at The Animal Museum, LA, in 2017.  lynn is currently Vice-Chair of the Australasian Animals Studies Association, and Research Assistant and Committee Member for the Human Rights and Animal Ethics Research Network.  Further information can be found at her blog: www.lynnmowson.com