» Brand new breath

The works Brand New Breath, Look at Me, Miss Fluffy, and Twin Brain form part of the series Unseen Viscera, which stems from a hypothesis on the collateral damage of internal organs when the body struggles to fight an infection in the unseen viscera; concerns over health and wellness; as well as the artist’s interest in the anthropology of biomedicine.

Drawing from the artist’s personal experience of suffering from infections and abrupt physical reactions to the changing environment, Alisa Chunchue creates anatomically deviant sculptures that reflect the experience of being Othered by her own body. These sculptures are made abstract through dissections and reproductions. In her mixed-media paintings, the artist reimagines and metaphorically depicts bodily fluids such as blood vessels and blood itself.

Twin Brain depicts the origin of human rebirth. Its temporal lobes and cerebellum are double in size, while shiny plastic skins are redesigned to be impact- and scratch-resistant. Meanwhile, in Brand New Breath, the nasal cavity is developed to function as an air filter for those struggling with increasing air pollution. These newly imagined organs are intentionally and significantly separated into parts: they visually prophesy futuristic human bodies that will finally take on these, and potentially even more, new artificial organs, in order to cope with the fallout of the climate crisis. 

(Edited from text excerpts provided by the artist) 

Unseen Viscera was exhibited in May 2018 at A. Farm, HCMC, Vietnam, an international art residency program supported by Nguyen Art Foundation.