It’s Alive!
You Gotta Have Heart
By: Sybil Bilius – Reviewer-at-large
The famed bio-artist who goes by the name of Zena Fovia is having her latest invitation-only show entitled “It’s Alive.”
After being “discovered” by a top-tier art dealer in Tierra del Fuego, and thereafter surviving a bout of megalomania, Ms. Fovia turned her attention to matters of the heart. No, not romantic issues, actual heart issues. As in a beating heart.
Ms. Fovia’s latest inspiration employs real hearts (hopefully not human) that are kept beating, with the help of electrical impulses generated by fast-moving genetically engineered hamsters running on a specially constructed treadmill attached to a small but powerful generator—her own invention. No external power source needed. All bio, all the time.
As long as your heart beats,
you stand a chance of learning to live.
~ Z. Nil
The living hearts pump synthetic fluids of various colors through tiny veinlike tubes that are laced within the various artworks. Several years in the making, and after completing a brief mail-order course on subcutaneous surgery, Ms. Fovia has mastered a process that imbues her art with a life of its own. Some of Ms. Fovia’s pieces are free-standing, while others can be hung on a wall. All are geared to entice collectors of all veins. Ms. Fovia developed her technique with the help of an anonymous biotech laboratory that we were told has vast experience in manufacturing vacuum lines for automobiles.
Rumor has it that another of her top-secret projects will use patients’ heart rhythms to create oscillating art in hospitals – much more interesting than those silly bleeping-line machines. In addition, there are murmurs she is collaborating on projects with AI (artificial intelligence) scientists Hammond Maiyo and his colleague Igor Snotsky. Ms. Fovia teasingly hinted that “This will bring new life to the art of science and the science of art.” She also feels that this focus on using living, beating hearts to imbue her works with a life of their own will help raise awareness of the global health crisis – especially as it relates to today’s art world.
Ms. Fovia confirms she is working on a posthumous project that will make use of her own heart when she eventually succumbs to bad reviews.
♦
Original Art (“Liberation” and “Eye See You”) and Text © Copyright 2017 Nikitas Kavouklés, All Rights Reserved
