Artists Statement

Victimless Leather is grown from immortalised cell lines, cultured to form a living layer of tissue supported by a biodegradable polymer matrix in the form of a miniature stitch-less coat. It’s grown inside a custom made perfusion chamber (inspired by the organ perfusion pump originally designed by Alexis Carrel and Charles Lindbergh). It is has automatic system which drips nutrients into the polymers and feeds the cells. The Victimless Leather project presents an ambiguous view of technological price our society needs to pay for achieving ‘a victimless utopia’.  tcaproject.org/vl
Scientific consultant: Professor Arunasalam Dharmarajan  staffportal.curtin.edu.au/staff/profile/view/A.Dharmarajan
https://tcaproject.net/portfolio/victimless-leather
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victimless_Leather

•  Established in 1996 by Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr, the Tissue, Culture & Art (TC&A) Project is a pioneering collaboration that explores how tissue engineering can be used as a medium for artistic expression. Manifesto:
  The Tissue Culture & Art Project (TC&A) was set to explore the use of tissue technologies as a medium for artistic expression. We are investigating our relationships with the different gradients of life through the construction/growth of a new class of object/being – that of the Semi-Living. These are parts of complex organisms which are sustained alive outside of the body and coerced to grow in predetermined shapes. These evocative objects are a tangible example that brings into question deep rooted perceptions of life and identity, concept of self, and the position of the human in regard to other living beings and the environment. We are interested in the new discourses and new ethics/epistemologies that surround issues of partial life and the contestable future scenarios they are offering us. (Source: tcaproject.org/about 22.06.2015)

Supported by ArtsWA in Association with the Lotteries Commission.