Två människor, en kvinna och en man, som andas i ett rör för att symbolisera hur luft rör sig mellan människor i rum
Två människor, en kvinna och en man, som andas i ett rör för att symbolisera hur luft rör sig mellan människor i rum

93% Human (video still), Helen Pynor, 2023.

Helen Pynor – the artist behind Borderlands

Helen Pynor is an interdisciplinary Artist and Researcher whose practice explores philosophically, experientially and materially ambiguous zones, such as the life-death boundary, the inter-subjective nature of organ transplantation, and the collapse of the animate-inanimate boundary in relation to prosthetics. Pynor works with living and ‘semi-living’ cells, organs and biomolecules such as DNA, and in a recent work her own surgically excised bone material. She works across installation, media art, photography, video, sculpture, microscopy, sound and performance. Her practice comprises a form of ‘material philosophy’, frequently redeploying scientific methodologies and technologies in the service of more philosophically focused questions.

 

Lokal med föremål från utställningen Borderland.

Foto: Miha Fras. Helen Pynor and Peta Clancy, The Body is a Big Place, 2011-2013.

Pynor frequently undertakes long-term, in-depth residencies in scientific and clinical institutions, including The South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide (2020-2021); The Francis Crick Institute, London (2018); The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden (2017, 2015); The Heart and Lung Transplant Unit, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney (2012-2013); and SymbioticA, The University of Western Australia (2010). She also collaborates with members of the broader community whose embodied experiences connect with the themes of her work.

Pynor’s work has been exhibited widely in museums and galleries internationally, it has featured in a wide range of journals, books and media, and her work is held in public and private collections. Pynor has received an Honorary Mention at the internationally prestigious media art award Prix Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, as well as national awards in Australia.

Pynor has completed a PhD at Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney, a Bachelor of Visual Arts at Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney (Sculpture, Installation, Photography) and a Bachelor of Science (1st Class Hons) at Macquarie University, Sydney (Cell and Molecular Biology).

Pynor lives and works in Sydney and London.

The Body is a Big Place, Helen Pynor and Peta Clancy.

Helen Pynor and Peta Clancy, The Body is a Big Place, 2011-2013.

Borderlands is the first exhibition to be shown in The Cell and comprises three works by the Australian artist Helen Pynor, with fellow Australian artist Peta Clancy a co-author of one of the works.

Kyckling som ligger på ett bord där den saknar fjädrar nedre delen av kroppen.

Helen Pynor, The End is s Distant Memory, 2016.

Helen Pynor is interested philosophically, experientially and materially ambiguous zones, such as the boundary between life and death. She works with living and “semi-living” cells, organs and biomolecules such as DNA.  

The exhibition will continue until the end of April 2025