The Cost of Her2
Artist: Daniel Adams
Materials: wood, plastic, polymer clay, paint, silver, steel
Dimensions: 3 3/8" x1 1/2" x 3/3"
Beneficiary: Ocean Conservancy
Artist Statement: I have worked in the lab for almost 30 years, helping diagnose cancer and other diseases for thousands of patients. The sense of accomplishment I get aiding the sick and successfully performing highly complex tests makes me grateful for this fulfilling career.
The Agilent Omni’s stainer is an amazing piece of engineering - accurate, fast and easy to use - but it generates thousands of waste plastic bottles every year. These bottles go into landfills and become an almost eternal part of nature. So how do we square the needs of the sick and the enormous negative environmental impact of testing? In this piece I try to express this quandary with a cross section of one of these discarded vials, surrounding an image of breast cancer, and embedded into the stained wood with holes and red paint represent the malignant cells.
My hope is the Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas program will help offset at least some of the damage we cause in the pursuit of healing.
50% of the sale of this piece will be donated to the beneficiary listed above.