Maija Tammi »
POST- (2015-2017)
Exhibition: 22 Oct – 26 Nov 2017
In POST- Maija Tammi combines three projects about (im)mortality. From her series WHITE RABBIT FEVER, she shows immortal cancer cell lines. These are derived from among others the infamous cancer cells of Henrietta Lacks, who died in 1951. Cancer cell lines, unlike most human cells, do not age, they can keep dividing endlessly. Her images and video from VOLUNTEER 4 (HYDRA) show hydras, fresh-water polyps that are five to fifteen millimeters in length and also cannot age, making them biologically immortal. If they are cut into pieces, the individual parts are able to regenerate themselves into a fully-fledged animal. In this series, Tammi embraces the concrete possibilities for eternal life and the attempts to achieve this. The portrait of the android Erica, from ONE OF THEM IS A HUMAN, offers a different view on immortality and on the human escapist desire to outwit death.