Helen Pynor
Biography
Dr Helen Pynor is an Artist and Researcher whose practice explores philosophically and experientially ambiguous zones, such as the life-death boundary, the intersubjective nature of organ transplantation, and 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, sculpture, photography, video, media art, microscopy and performance.
Pynor frequently undertakes in-depth residencies and collaborations with scientists in scientific and clinical institutions, including The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden; The Francis Crick Institute, London; The Heart and Lung Transplant Unit, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney; SymbioticA, Perth; and most recently The South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide.
Pynor’s work has been exhibited widely internationally including at ZKM | Karlsruhe; Experimenta ‘Life Forms’ International Triennial of Media Art (touring nationally, Australia); National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts; Beijing Media Art Biennale; FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) UK; Science Gallery Dublin; Science Gallery London; Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney; and ISEA (International Symposium on Electronic Art). Pynor has received an Honorary Mention at Prix Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, and national awards in Australia.