Keep Me Safe From Harm

UV paint on plastic, 150x200x300cm

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For the exhibition 'Perceptions of Promise: Biotechnology, Society and Art' at Glenbow Museum, Calgary this Spring, Marilène Oliver worked with stem cell researchers Jennifer Nichols and Mila Roode of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research in Cambridge, and Peter Rugg- Gunn of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto to create Keep Me Safe From Harm (2010). Using the colourful scans of a human blastocyst provided by Rugg-Gunn, the artist printed and reassembled them into a kind of protective pod, large enough for an adult to enter.

Though the scans were originally intended to record the embryo's structure, Oliver has changed them into a material entity and spatial environment, an alteration that functions on various levels. The scans are rendered in UV paints and therefore can only be viewed in black light. Her inflation of a microscopic image suggests the potentially exaggerated status of the embryo within contemporary culture. The human embryo has indeed become an iconic object, standing in for a range of beliefs and ideas, including life, progress, and hope. It is unclear whether the title of Keep Me Safe From Harm is a plea emanating from the embryo in the face of this exploitation and use, or a request made by viewers as they enter the embryo's embrace, putting their faith in the research that it enables.