Artist’s Article on
® cti
The Immortalisation of Billy Apple : onne c
a b s t r a c t l
An Art-Science Collaboration tia
In The Immortalisation of Billy en ® ® Apple , Billy Apple is simulta ss neously a subject of art and of e e scientific endeavor. This project th has resulted in the first bio Craig Hilton e: logical tissue made available for c
artists and the first biological tis en sue for science research made tsci
available by an artist as art. It r has long been understood that a Homo sapiens are a selective he Immortalisation of Billy Apple ® (TIOBA) [1] Barr virus) [4]. When the Epstein- force of nature. Here the tissue T Barr virus infects B cells in vitro, and genetic information survive is the result of a collaboration between artists and medical artistic and scientific natural researchers. Each collaborator has his own interests and fo- lymphoblastoid cell lines capable selection. The Immortalisation of cus, and there are thus different levels at which science and of indefinite growth in cell culture Billy Apple® provides an ongoing art operate. Billy Apple®, a subject and collaborator in this medium eventually emerge (Fig. opportunity for cultural engage project, has a clearly defined art practice. In addition to the 3). The growth transformation of ment with biological technology. these immortalized [5] cells is the This paper poses the question: cancer and immunology research resources resulting from Can genuine science and art TIOBA, art-science collaborator Rod Dunbar’s interests relate consequence of viral protein ex- output emerge from collabora to his understanding of the need for science to engage with pression. Without such transforma- tion? As the author explores wider audiences and the opportunity TIOBA presents to in- tion, these cells, like the artist they this question, other questions teract with artists to help facilitate this engagement. I have an are derived from, have a limited life emerge around the scope of art in the realm of science and the interest in art at the interface between art and science activity span. Primary cell cultures do not roles of collaborators. and initiated, facilitated and executed the project, including survive indefinitely in culture as an the employment of technicians. In this paper I engage with immortalized cell line does. The another artist, Billy Apple®, whose brand as a subject for im- immortalized lymphoblastoid cells, mortalization provides the perfect opportunity to address the housed in a container that mimics question: Can genuine science and art output emerge from the precise environmental/physiological conditions present in collaboration? the artist’s body, were installed at Starkwhite Gallery, Auckland, Billy Apple® came into existence in 1962 as an artistic ges- New Zealand (Fig. 4a) for our project launch on 6 May 2010. ture by the then Barrie Bates. The creation of Billy Apple® has New Zealand scientists, artists and those interested in the busi- shaped Bates’s practice for the last five decades. Billy Apple® ness of both attended the event. Foreshadowing another phase was a pivotal artist in the British/New York pop art and concep- of this evolving project, the Billy Apple® cell line is being used tual art movements in the 1960s and 1970s. At the conception in studies that will directly benefit cancer and immunology re- of Billy Apple®, the new artist initiated the brand by bleaching search, as well as continue the conceptual work of Billy Apple®. his hair and eyebrows with Lady Clairol Instant Creme Whip (Figs 1 and 2). Billy Apple®’s first solo exhibition, Live Stills: Apple Sees Red, was staged at Gallery One, London in April Eternal Art? 1963 (Color Plate A). Since then, as Christina Barton writes, It is said that art brings things to life. Vilem Flusser points he has “spent much of his career creating and refining his out that, with the advent of biotechnology, this has become ‘brand’ as an artistic manoeuvre geared to test the boundar- literally true: “It has become possible to create a work of art ies of art, examine the mechanisms that construct the artist as subject, and expose the value systems in which he and his Fig. 1. Billy Apple®, Billy Apple® bleaching with Lady Clairol Instant works are mired” [2]. Creme Whip, November 1962, black-and-white photograph with screen- By blurring the boundaries between art and artist, art and printed text, 408 × 575 mm, 1962. (© Billy Apple®. Courtesy of the ® life, and art and commerce, Billy Apple® continually asks the Billy Apple archive.) question: Where does art stop and life begin? This gradual transformation from an individual artist into a brand culmi- nated in 2008, when he registered his name as a trademark. His Excretory Wipings (Serpentine Gallery, 1970), Body Activities ( June 1970–June 1973) and other work incorporating his body into his art demonstrate his long interest in biology and the (his) body as an art subject. TIOBA is a contemporary update of Billy Apple®’s litany of exploration into art and life. Billy Apple®’s B-lymphocytes [3] were isolated from periph- eral blood and grown in appropriate tissue culture media. These cells were then virally transformed (using the Epstein-
Craig Hilton (artist, scientist, educator), 6 Taraire Street, Waiheke Island, Auckland, New Zealand. Email:
©2014 ISAST doi:10.1162/LEON_a_00709 LEONARDO, Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 109–113, 2014 109
Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_00709 by guest on 23 September 2021 on show at Starkwhite Gallery, coinciding
cti with the cells’ arrival in the USA, marked ® Fig. 2. Billy Apple , this event (Fig. 4b). Signature Piece, offset onne
c lithograph on primed l linen, 735 × 510 mm, Science in the Service tia 1962--1963. (© Billy ® en Apple . Courtesy of Art—Art in the ® ss of the Billy Apple Service of Science archive.) e e TIOBA provides the first human tissue th to be made available for art-making and e: c the first tissue for science research made en available by an artist as art.
tsci There are many scientists around the r
a world studying how the immune system attacks infection, cancer and occasion- ally the person’s own tissues (in auto- immune disease). This research effort often depends on the availability of cell lines that represent the diversity of the immune system across humanity. It is this diversity that protects human popula- tions from devastation by new infectious diseases. The Dunbar Laboratory at the Uni- versity of Auckland is developing new approaches to the therapy of melanoma and other cancers using cells of the im- mune system. A key step in this process is the purification of immune cells (T-lymphocytes) from cancer patients, resulting in immune cells that can rec- ognize and kill cancer cells. Once these cells have been purified, they need to that will live, will multiply, and will itself cells. As the cells’ usefulness increases, grow among other cells. The immortal- create other works of art, practically for- and as the copies of the artwork and the ized Billy Apple® B-cells are used to help ever” [6]. artwork/genetic material are exponen- them grow. The T-cells are tested for their TIOBA is art literally bringing life that tially reproduced globally, so does the ability to recognize certain protein com- lives and replicates itself forever. The re- fame of this artist’s biological tissue. A ponents of cancer cells. The Billy Apple® lationship of copies to originals is com- plex in biology and in art. Any given ® ® original is only as famous or as successful Fig. 3. Billy Apple looking at the new Billy Apple cell line, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand, December 2009. (© Billy Apple®. as its reproductions, but reproductions Photo: Mary Morrison. Courtesy of the Billy Apple® archive.) can replace an original (they mutate). The true immortal nature of any cell line is dependent on its usefulness as a science (and art) resource. In TIOBA the artist Billy Apple® works in the service of science, and in return science serves the artist to enhance and protect the artist’s brand by immortalizing his bio- logical tissue in perpetuity. This trans- action ensures that the brand (and the artist) can theoretically last forever, unconstrained by death, and that Billy Apple® cells are available for commu- nities engaged in artistic and scientific endeavors. In May 2012, the American Type Cul- ture Collection added the immortalized cell line to its collection [7], making it a resource available for both artists and scientists, thereby creating further dia- logue and interdisciplinary opportunity highlighting the ongoing nature of this project and the immortality of these
110 Hilton, Immortalisation of Billy Apple®
Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_00709 by guest on 23 September 2021 such as the lymph glands—until the right on
cells happen to bump into each other. cti How such random movements can allow onne
efficient immune responses to viral infec- c
tions is unknown and seems improbable; l
researchers recognize the importance of tia exploring the randomness of immune en cell movement and the role that chance ss plays in determining how the immune e e th
system works. Primary T-lymphocytes e: will also be isolated from Billy Apple® in c order to help solve this challenging im- en
munological problem. tsci r In order to be effective, T-lymphocytes a first need to be activated by their detec- tion of a particular foreign antigen. This antigen represents the pathogenic po- tential of an invading organism or tumor. Antigen-presenting cells are the cells that present this antigen to the T-cells. Each T-cell (among the many millions of T-cells) in the lymph node is unique; this allows for the separate recognition of the many different antigens that a human may encounter over a lifetime. Just how these very rare T-cells find their equally rare antigen presented by the antigen- presenting cells (APC) in the lymph node remains a conundrum; finding the solution to this problem is crucial in or- der to further our understanding of how the immune system can combat patho- gens and cancer. Billy Apple®’s T-cells can be grown in cell culture (a process helped by the im- mortalized B-cell line) and observed as they randomly wander among cells in a simulated lymph node environment (recorded by microscopic video). The T-cells’ motility and their interaction with corresponding antigen-presenting cells can then be studied with specially ® Fig. 4. (a) Craig Hilton, The Immortalisation of Billy Apple , Starkwhite Gallery, Auckland, developed software to map these com- New Zealand, May 2010. (© Craig Hilton. Photo: Jennifer French.) (b) Craig Hilton, The Immortalisation of Billy Apple®, Stage 2, Starkwhite Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, plex movements in the lymph node. The May 2012. (© Craig Hilton. Photo: Jennifer French.) dynamics of this random movement can be represented diagrammatically as 3D maps projected onto 2D diagrams repre- B-cells are also used for this process, since This part of the project is highly innova- senting the lymph node. Carefully ana- they can hold these protein components tive, as at present there are few labs in the lyzed experimental observations of the from cancer cells on their surface, where world that can routinely purify such cells artist’s cells’ trajectories will contribute the T-cells can recognize the cancer from healthy donors. to the development and calibration of markers. The immune system responds to viral scientific models that can help us under- T-lymphocytes can also be grown from infections and tumor growth by select- stand how T-cells scan the multitudinous healthy individuals as well as from can- ing certain rare immune cells that can antigen-presenting cells in the lymph cer patients. One of the Dunbar Labo- deal with that particular virus or tumor node, ultimately recognizing their spe- ratory’s ultimate aims is to purify T-cells and making those cells divide repeatedly cific antigen. The dynamics of the artist from healthy people to create cells that to increase their numbers. Immune re- and his cells complement the dynamics can fight cancers or viruses to which sponses to viruses and tumors therefore of modeling T-cells and antigen-present- the healthy subjects have never been involve rare cells meeting each other. It ing cells in the lymph node. exposed and so prevent these diseases. has always been assumed that somehow Billy Apple®’s white blood cells will these rare cells must be attracted to each be screened for the presence of these other during a viral infection or tumor Collaboration? T-cells, which will be purified, grown in growth. However, new evidence suggests While art and science are both about large numbers and tested for their ability that immune cells simply wander around knowledge, science requires—as an to kill cancer cells or virus-infected cells. the spaces where they usually gather— epistemic value—the suppression of self
Hilton, Immortalisation of Billy Apple® 111
Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_00709 by guest on 23 September 2021 on while art can embrace self. When these for any mutual understanding of process, understanding of the foundation and
cti cultures interact and when collabora- method and culture. mechanisms of life (although, it could tions are sought, the roles of each can While the goals of these disparate be argued, not enough) but also our abil- onne
c become mired in the desire for a suc- disciplines may be distinct, proponents ity to adjust life according to the whims
l cessful collaboration. Definitions of art of art/science collaboration hope that and needs of our species. For instance,
tia and science, of artist and scientist, can be TIOBA may result in a situation where DNA synthesis technology has improved en blurred (this is the science and this is the art science informs art and vice versa. In our beyond original hopes, thus accelerating ss . . . this is both?). Science has a rigorous collaborative project, art and science in- the field of synthetic biology, in which e e system, and pseudoscience is relatively termingle; Billy Apple® is simultaneously the genomes of ever more complicated th
e: easy to detect. Art has neither system a subject of art and a subject of scientific organisms are being not only synthesized c nor boundaries. However, in an inter- investigation. Science continues to rede- but redesigned by engineers to meet the en disciplinary situation an artist may feel fine nature and life. Billy Apple® contin- specifications of humans [10–14].
tsci pressure to protect his/her identity (I am ues to question distinctions between art In 1950, when DNA was still poorly un- r a an artist—I do this and I do not do that), and life. The role of Billy Apple® as both derstood, Julian Huxley suggested that thus restricting what it means to make subject and collaborator with me offers a the trusteeship of evolution now belongs art. Can an artist choose to embrace the unique opportunity to derive both artis- to humans, who have “the duty and privi- scientific method and still be an artist? tic and scientific value from this project. lege . . . to continue . . . the advance of . . . when making an artwork is to ex- The artist works in the service of science, the cosmic process of evolution” [15]. In periment? In this situation the fetishistic and science serves the artist to enhance 2013 this claim seems less outrageous. nature of the concept of a finished work and protect the Billy Apple® brand by im- Perhaps we have always known that becomes obvious. What is a hybrid artist- mortalizing his biological tissue. By giv- these boundaries and definitions of life scientist? Perhaps the ideas/outputs at ing away these cells, the artist/subject/ and nature are artifactual. This does not this interface are not easily categorized brand (and his genetic information, necessarily salve our anxieties in a time as either art or science. which is not nearly a fully determined when our concepts of humanity—how The question I sought to ask in TIOBA commodity) ensures the usefulness— we perceive and comprehend life—shift is: Can art serve science and science serve and so the perpetuity—of the brand. His with such alarming pace. art? Whether they SHOULD serve each reproductive potential is literally unlim- “Thank God for Dolly,” said the direc- other is not yet relevant. ited. However, fame and immortality are tor of the Danish Board of Technology, Scientists, artists, writers and scholars not always the same thing. The biological Jan Ejlsted, during a public debate on have made various attempts to address success of an organism is measured by cloning in Amsterdam when the cloning the cultural gap between the humanities the extent to which it has been copied. of a sheep triggered the debate on bio- and the sciences. TIOBA contributes to To date, the greatest existing biomass technology and exposed the weakness of this discussion by attempting a collabora- of any individual is derived from Henri- the political system with respect to an- tion between art practice and scientific etta Lacks [8], who lies buried in one of ticipating scientific breakthroughs [16]. research. What would a genuine collabo- several unmarked plots next to an aban- Body fluids, for instance, have now taken ration look like, and why is such collab doned house while her cells gain fame on new meanings in the wake of the bio- oration important or even interesting? and have even traveled into space. Her logical revolution driven by emerging Art that appropriates scientific imagery, daughter, Deborah Lacks-Pullum, does molecular biology technologies. These mimics science or fiddles with the novel- not remember her mother but has seen technologies have given us the Human ties of technology would be unlikely to her cultured cells [9]. The Mona Lisa Genome Project, medical genetics, bio- contribute to, or inform, scientific re- is the most reproduced painting in the banks, DNA fingerprinting, etc. They search. Scientists utilizing creative input Western world. Neither Lisa Gherardini have also given rise to all the important from artists in order to publicize (and nor Henrietta Lacks is as famous as La cultural issues regarding the use and perhaps encourage public funding for) Jaconde or HeLa cells. ownership of body tissue and genetic in- science and technology do not contrib- formation that burden the development ute to art discourse or practice. and use of these technologies [17,18]. A true collaboration, in order to be Biotechnology The proliferation and unauthorized more than just a contrived exercise in Consistent with Billy Apple®’s five- use of Henrietta Lacks’s immortalized cultural relations, would need to have decade art practice, he is both subject tissue (an eternal scientific resource) genuinely valuable scientific and artistic and artist in TIOBA. TIOBA is an art has been and remains controversial. output. Yet it would be disappointing, in project in which art, artist, science and TIOBA helps explore the implications of such a collaboration, if it were too easy technology are subjects. There is an op- the donation and storage of biological to separate the outcomes of the science portunity—perhaps an obligation—for tissue for current and future research. In and the art from each other. art to engage directly with science and contrast to most tissue donations, which Artists engaging with technology and create informed work that may in some involve tight restrictions on use, we have science need to interact with scholars way contribute to the much-needed deliberately placed no restrictions on from a wide variety of disciplines. How- debate in the context of science and the use of Billy Apple®’s tissue. This is a ever, familiarity with the tools of another technology’s exponentially increasing reconceptualization of tissue acquisition culture does not imply an understanding influence on life. as an artistic transaction. Here, the pub- of method. In addition, although fund- The influence of science and tech- lic artist once again merges life and art, ing priorities have driven most scientists nology remains largely uncontested by making public his tissue and along with into technology production, science it- culture. In the last 30 years, advances it, his genetic information. self is a system of thought rather than a in molecular and cellular biology and In TIOBA, the name Billy Apple® collection of objects. The close interac- the application of resulting technolo- (listed with the American Type Culture tion of artists and scientists is essential gies have vastly increased not only our Collection and therefore available for all
112 Hilton, Immortalisation of Billy Apple®
Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_00709 by guest on 23 September 2021 researchers of all kinds) clearly identifies plasma cells that synthesize and secrete specific an- controlled by a chemically synthesized genome,” Sci- on tibodies that circulate in the blood and react with the donor of the cells. The artist/donor ence, Vol. 329, No. 5987, 52–56 (2010). cti that specific antigen. (and brand!) waives his rights to privacy 12. Isaacs, F.J. et al., “Precise manipulation of
4. Miller, G., “Immortalization of human lympho- chromosomes in vivo enables genome-wide codon onne
in the name of art. This offers a stark c replacement,” Science, Vol. 333, No. 6040, 348–353 cytes by Epstein-Barr virus,” Yale Journal of Biology and l contrast to the justified global anxiety Medicine, Vol. 55 (No. 3–4): 305–310 (1982). (2011). regarding the privacy of individual bio- tia logical tissue and genetic information. 5. Cell immortalization: The genetically derived 13. Dymond, J.S. et al., “Synthetic chromosome arms en
ability of cells (from a multicellular organism) that function in yeast and generate phenotypic diversity ss normally would not proliferate indefinitely to do by design,” Nature, Vol. 477, No. 7365, 471–476 I consent to the wide distribution of cell e e so. The cells escape from the normal limitation on (2011). lines derived from my blood, including growth of a finite number of cell divisions (the Hay- th flick limit). Immortalization may be spontaneous or 14. Humphries, C., “Hacking the Genome, Life: The e:
deposit with the American Type Culture c intentionally induced by mutagens, by transfection Edited Version,” Harvard Magazine, Harvard Maga-
Collection cell bank. I understand this en of certain oncogenes or by viral transformation. Un- zine Inc.: Cambridge, MA. 15–16 (2012). may enable unrestricted use of my cells in like primary and secondary cells, immortalized cells 15. Julian Huxley, New Bottles for New Wine: Ideology tsci research outside my control, including the continue to grow and divide indefinitely in vitro for r as long as the correct culture conditions are main- and Scientific Knowledge, Royal Anthropological Insti- a potential analysis of my DNA. tained. Immortalized cell lines are also known as tute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 80, 17 (1950). transformed cells, i.e. cells whose growth properties ® 16. Rinie van Est, Gert van Dijk, “The public debate —Billy Apple , 5 December 2009 have been altered. HeLa cells are an example of an on cloning: International experiences, Amsterdam, immortalized cell line. the Netherlands, 19 November, 1999,” TA-Daten- Acknowledgments 6. Vilem Flusser, “Curie’s Children,” Art Forum, bank-Nachrichten: Institut für Technikfolgenab- schätzung und Systemanalyse. 109–115 (2000). Rod Dunbar, School of Biological Sciences, Univer- March: pp. 14–15 (1988). ® sity of Auckland; Billy Apple and Mary Morrison; 17. Truog, R.D., A.S. Kesselheim and S. Joffe, “Re- 7. American Type Culture Collection:
Hilton, Immortalisation of Billy Apple® 113
Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_00709 by guest on 23 September 2021