FOR ‘TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS: ED ATKINS AND NAHEED RAZA’
New clip from ‘Frozen in Time’, Naheed Raza 2013
Installation images at JVA at Jerwood Space from ‘Frozen in Time’, Naheed Raza, 2013. Photos: thisistomorrow.info
Still from ‘Frozen in Time’, Naheed Raza 2013
Detail of ‘Longview of Cryolunar Base’ from the Cryonics Reports 1968
Detail of the ‘Cryonic Suspension of Ann DeBlasio’ from the Cryonics Reports 1968
Patient Number 66, Courtesy of the Cryonics Institute of Michigan
Still from ‘Frozen in Time’, Naheed Raza 2013
Teaser for Naheed Raza’s new commission
Continuing the trajectory of her pilot project Frozen in Time, Naheed Raza’s new commission deepens her exploration of the phenomenon of cryonics. Pioneered in the 1960s by the American scientist Robert Ettinger, cryonics is premised on preserving and storing the human body at sub-zero temperatures in the hope that it can be recovered and reanimated in the future when medical technology is more advanced. Although it can sometimes seem like a product of wacky post-war science fiction, cryonics has quietly sustained itself over the last few decades, bolstered by a growing acknowledgement within the medical fraternity that the point of actual brain death or bodily shutdown is not quite as clear-cut as once was first thought. Featuring interviews with leading figures in the field (and members of the public who have requested that their bodies are preserved for posterity), Raza’s video is punctuated with atmospheric footage shot at various cryonics institutes in the USA. Evocative, compelling and strangely affecting, the piece foregrounds the medical and philosophical uncertainties surrounding the extension of life and our definitions of death.
Image: still from Naheed Raza’s new commission
Image: still from Naheed Raza’s new commission
Naheed Raza is an artist whose practice is informed by her background and training in science. Her works are characterised by a sense of fragility, transience and a tactile engagement with materials such as spider’s silk or shifting sand. By experimenting with and depicting these materials, Raza invites us to consider both their physical properties and their metaphorical possibilities.
Raza studied medicine and natural sciences at Oxford University before going on to study for a BA in Fine Art at Chelsea School of Art and then graduating with an MA from the Slade School of Art in 2007. She has been Artist in Residence in the Maths Department at UCL and the recipient of a Wellcome Trust Arts Award. Her recent exhibitions include solo shows at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Lismore Castle Arts and Bloomberg SPACE, and screenings at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow and Edinburgh Film Festival. Raza’s work was presented in 2012 as part of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ at JVA at Jerwood Space, London.