Enacting Livelier Biosecurity in Human-Yeast Engagements

Biosecurity typically functions in line with the principle of distinguishing 'valuable' life forms from 'less worthy' and protecting the former by isolating or eradicating the latter. More recent immunological studies, however, regard such an approach as insufficient. For, infections are induced not merely by pathogens rather by specific configurations of microbes, people, politics, economics, interspecies relations, and technologies. Hence, experts in epidemiology have begun to propose alternative practices of what they refer to as livelier biosecurity or more flexible measures that account for more nuanced interrelations between humans, various organisms, habitats, and contexts.

In connection with biosecurity issues, this paper discusses artworks of Australian artist Tarsh Bates, mainly her solo show, 'The Unsettling Eros of Contact Zones and Other Stories,' held in October 2015 at the Gallery Central in Perth (Australia). At this exhibition, the artist presented five projects, all of which featured Candida albicans, a potentially pathogenic microorganism that belongs to the yeast family. Since this microbe can cause infections, Bates was compelled to introduce a set of biosecurity measures in compliance with the national biosafety requirements. However, although conforming to the regulations, the exhibition functioned as a space that did not completely exclude pathogens but rather ensured their flourishing. Focusing on the oscillation between the proliferation of microbes in the gallery and the strict biosecurity measures, in this paper, I demonstrate how Bates' exhibition, among other interpretive possibilities, comes to function as a proposition towards a more-than-human life politics and a livelier system of biosecurity.