Heather Dewey-Hagborg: AIR

Heather Dewey-Hagborg is a transdisciplinary artist and educator interested in art as research and critical practice. Her controversial bio-political art practice includes the project Stranger Visions in which she created portrait sculptures from analyses of genetic material—hair, cigarette butts, chewed up gum—collected in public places.

Dewey-Hagborg has shown work internationally at events and venues including the World Economic Forum, the Shenzhen Urbanism and Architecture Biennale, the Van Abbemuseum, Transmediale, and PS1 MOMA. Her work is held in public collections of the Centre Pompidou, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the New York Historical Society and has been widely discussed in the media, from the New York Times and the BBC to Art Forum and Wired.

She is an artist fellow at AI Now, and an affiliate of Data Society and is the co-founder and co-curator of REFRESH, an inclusive and politically engaged collaborative platform at the intersection of art, science, and technology.

Photo courtesy of Thomas Dexter.

The artwork Probably Chelsea by Heather Dewey-Hagbog and Chelsea Manning is featured in the exhibit collection Cells to Self. In this video Heather Dewey-Hagborg explains the artwork and describes how the same DNA data can be interpreted in many different ways.