Ian Haig, 2005

The Dirt Factory, a pseudonym for the human body, a machine for producing filth. The natural state of the body, like the toilet, is clean on the exterior and dirty inside, harbouring millions of good and bad bacteria, a microbiology of decay and putrefaction which lurks beneath the surface. This idea of cleanliness and dirt and its cultural implications is played out against the wholesome, iconic goodness of Kellogg’s cornflakes and the bizarre, very real underbelly of a perverse sexual/health fanaticism at work, through its founder John Harvey Kellogg.

André Brodyk “host”, 2005 

The word “host” here is used as a noun in reference to the human form as living physical material, one which temporarily provides subsistence and a means of expression for the substances of life operating at a genetic level. The stylised images of human hands each form one of the four letters for the word “host” using American Sign Language. The human form has long served as a model and host for both artistic inquiry and scientific investigation in the quest for knowledge, communication and understanding of our species. These images are drawn using a new material for art making. This material is comprised of a strain of living genetically modified E-coli bacteria, which emits a coloured light when exposed to UV radiation. E-coli occupies one of the pre-eminent positions as a biological model serving as host material for understanding the nature and properties of life at a genetic level. E-coli bacteria and humans have a direct-shared physiology. In the penumbral space of the work, which the viewer occupies, “host” illuminates the human and the bacterium as a living repository a consecrated material, the “host”. ©