The artistic and the scientific are often considered radically different ways of seeing, understanding, and making sense of our world(s). In the interdisciplinary work of Jennifer Willet, however, art and science collide to produce new modes of investigation and discovery. When Microbes Dream reimagines laboratory aesthetics as bountiful, feminine, and gaudy—in direct contradiction to scientific norms. In this world of whimsy, specimens and scientific processes are transformed into spectacles that question the boundaries between disciplines.
The exhibition presents a futurist vision, in which the human (scientist) is displaced from the top of the ecological hierarchy and agency is redistributed amongst ecosystems’ many non-human and human actors. Central to this vision is the notion of interspecies collaboration; performative sculpture, large-scale installation that incorporates live cultures, and a selection of digital prints are all populated by a menagerie of mammals, microbes, insects, and plants, working together to enact biotech processes for human audiences.
The Reach is the first Canadian venue of the exhibition’s international tour, which has taken the works on view to Ljubljana, Slovenia, as well as Porto and Lisbon, Portugal.
When Microbes Dream is produced in partnership with IOTA Institute and INCUBATOR Art Lab. This project gratefully acknowledges the support of the University of Windsor, the Canada Research Chair Program, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of Nova Scotia’s Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage.
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