Heirloom: Living Portraits of and for the Artist’s Daughters Created out of Their Own Cultured Cells

Abstract

Abstract This article presents the artwork Heirloom created by artist Gina Czarnecki and scientist John Hunt. Heirloom grows living portraits of Gina Czarnecki’s daughters from their own cells cultured from buccal swabs. The resulting artwork is an ongoing exploration in “culture,” “nurture” and “media” from the scientific, parental and artistic perspectives. The experiment is ongoing as new methods for sustaining life outside the lab have been developed for this work, potentially facilitating future DIY biotechnology for others and helping with maxillofacial reconstruction in the future. Heirloom has been presented within Trust Me, I’m an Artist, an EU Creative Europe supported project.