HELEN PYNOR ‘Borderlands’ at the National Museum of Science and Technology, Stockholm Technology

August 7, 2024

Helen Pynor’s exhibition Borderlands has recently opened at Tekniska Museet (National Museum of Science and Technology), Stockholm, and will continue until 19th April 2025. This large-scale exhibition brings together three major installations by Helen Pynor and her collaborators: ‘The Body is a Big Place’ (a collaboration with artist Peta Clancy), ‘The End is a Distant Memory’, and ‘93% Human’.

What connects these three works is their focus on philosophically and experientially ambiguous zones of existence. All three works were the result of long-term, in-depth collaborations with scientists and clinicians, in which scientific methodologies and technologies, such as organ perfusion, tissue culture, microscopy and DNA sequencing, were deployed in the service of the works’ philosophically framed explorations.
Collaborations with other creative practitioners such as sound artists, composers, performance makers, choreographers and videographers were also integral to the realisation of the works, enabling the activation of multiple senses to evoke the complex themes explored in the works.

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Image caption: ‘The Body is a Big Place’ 2011, Helen Pynor and Peta Clancy. Installation view in ‘Borderlands’ exhibition, 2024. 3-channel video projection, heart perfusion device, 3-channel video on monitors, 4.1 channel sound. Sound: Gail Priest. Collaborating scientists: Professor John Headrick and Dr Jason Peart, Heart Foundation Research Centre, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia; Professor Michael Shattock, Cardiovascular Division, King’s College London; Dr Kumud Dhital, Dr Arjun Iyer and Jonathan Cropper, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney and the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Sydney; Dr Gorazd Drevensek, Institute of Pharmacology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Photo: Anna Gardén. Image courtesy of the artists.