Facility Magazine Launch
Knockdown Center
November 2, 2019, 6 - 9 PM

“Protozoa (Louis Pasteur)”, 2019
Protozoa samples, handblown glass, cereal grass media, plexiglass, wood

Protozoa (Louis Pasteur) recreates an archival image of scientific experiments cultured by Louis Pasteur, known as "the father of microbiology." It explores the ways in which the study of epidemiology, microbes, and bacteria are entangled in the history of Western expansionism and empire-building. The protozoa cultured here are Amoeba, Paramecium, Euglena, Volvox, Stentor, and Spirostomum. 

“Rotifera”, 2019
Rotifers, hand-blown glass, vintage glass, vintage wood, phytoplankton
8 x 8 x 12 inches

Purifying bacteria, such as rotifers and protozoa, are organisms involved in public water purification systems. Rotifers eat organic detritus, notably human fecal matter, and they contribute to nutrient recycling; they're an essential component of sewage treatment processes. The "infrahumanist" labor of these microbes that eat human waste — fecal matter, products we've washed down the drain, food, etc — goes completely unnoticed, evoking the fantasy of an automated, devalued, racialized worker and echoing the history of the colonialized laborers who process U.S waste systems today.