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Blender
Stelarc & Nina Sellars

Adam Fiannaca - Engineering � Rainer Linz - Sound

BLENDER is the first collaborative installation produced by Stelarc and Nina

Sellars. Both artists undertook liposuction operations specifically for the purpose
of this new work and have succeeded in securing the sanitised isolation and, most
importantly, the legal ownership of the remnants of the procedures. The bio-
materials are now housed within BLENDER's industrial casing, which was on
exhibition at the Meat Market Gallery B in North Melbourne until August 18, 2005.

The installation itself stands at just over1.6 metres high and is anthropormorphic
in scale and structure. Everyfew minutes BLENDER automatically circulates or
"blends" itscontents via a system of compressed air pumps and a pneumatic
actuator.The mixture includes 4.6 litres of subcutaneous fat taken fromStelarc's
torso and Nina Sellars' limbs, zylocain (local anaesthetic),adrenalin, O+ blood,
sodium bicarbonate, peripheral nerves, salinesolutions and connective tissue.
     Installed under a single, dramaticspotlight, BLENDER is also wired for sound.
Rainer Linz's sound designsubtly amplifies, distorts and delays the audio produced
by theblending mechanism itself.

The project is an inevitable outcome of Stelarc and Sellar'slongstanding

fascination with "alternative corporeal architectures" andbodily functions. It also,
however, acts as an astute signpost towardsome of the more contentious issues
surrounding the blending ofcontemporary technology with corporeality. In an age
in which the bodyis more frequently neither seen, nor heard, BLENDER is wryly
anarchic:an audible, visceral display of "ontological" substance.

The world premiere of BLENDER was at the Meat MarketGallery B, 4-18 August
2005, 7 Blackwood Street, North Melbourne.Co-curated by Kristen Condon and
Amelia Douglas and presented by TEKNIKUNST.

 
Contents of the BLENDER included subcutaneous fat from Nina's limbs and Stelarc's torso, saline solution,
zylocain (local anaesthetic), adrenalin, o+ blood, sodium bicarbonate, peripheral nerves & connective
tissue. The body tissue was autoclaved for sterilization and the BLENDER vessel disinfected and
hermetically sealed. Both artists were blood tested prior to the surgical procedures. The bio-material
was aerated and mixed once every five minutes. An automated choreography of bubbling and blending.
Collaborating by subtracting physically from each body. technology as a host for a liquid body.
 Biographies

Nina Sellars

Nina Sellars' artistic practice combines drawing, photography, sculpture and new media and explores aspects of the physiology and phenomenology of the human
body. Her figurative work has been exhibited in the Dobell Prize for Drawing at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and her recent interactive, computer animated
installation titled 'Creation' was exhibited at the John Curtin Gallery as part of the 2005 Perth International Arts Festival. She has worked as a Prosector, dissector of
human bodies for anatomical display, at the University of Western Australia and also as a Lecturer in drawing for the Costume and Design Department at the Western
Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University. Sellars also designed with Stelarc "Corporeal Constructions", the course which they co-presented for
the Centre of Ideas at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. In 2006 she received funding from the Australia Council to photograph Stelarc's "Extra Ear" surgery
in Los Angeles.www.ninasellars.com

Rainer Linz

A composer of electronic and instrumental music, Rainer Linz has worked with Stelarc since 1986 designing sound for many performances including the Amplified Body,
Ping Body and Motion Prosthesis (Movatar). His most recent work includes the Fugue project, an interactive artificial immune system and the computer/text
performance Banalities for the Perfect House.
Additional information can be found on www.rainerlinz.net.

Adam Fiannaca

Adam Fiannaca has aided the artistic production of works in a sometimes creative and sometimes technical position for many artists such as
Adam Zaretsky, TC & A group, Cynthia Verspaget, Stelarc and Nina Sellars. Fiannaca's technical abilities and his own creative projects bridge the
divide between technologist and artist, highlighting a "new breed" of artistic negotiation. His skills rate highly amongst industry professionals
and are creatively embodied in the artistic works he collaborates on.

THANKS ALSO TO:

LINSEY HAGEN, CAMERON JONES AND LEON VERSPAGET

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