Visual art student Delia Poirier walks the runway as Lyme disease (JUSTIN ELLIOTT @jel_media/University of Windsor)
By Kate Hargreaves
Black mold, salmonella, E. coli and even brain-eating amoeba took over the CAW Student Centre March 16.
What sounds like a health and safety nightmare was not, in fact, a biohazard but rather a Bioart fashion show coordinated by School of Creative Arts professor and Canada Research Chair Dr. Jennifer Willet.
More than 50 members of her BioArt: Contemporary Art and Life Sciences course paraded through the student centre cafeteria before strutting the catwalk in DIY microbe costumes.
"I had to think about how to get 50, 60 or 100 students to have an embodied experience around microbes," Willet said of the inspiration behind the project.
"The course used to be a very small atelier-style class with 20 students in the lab doing everything hands-on. Now I am looking at experience design and shared experiences."
While there were some shrieks and nervousness when students initially learned about the project in January, Willet said that excitement had been building toward the event, with students committing to really embody the organism of their choice.
"I asked them to pick a particular microbe, not just their idea of what a microbe might look like," said Willet. "They had to do some research and really get to know their microbe."
Before the show began, students gathered in Alumni Auditorium to put the finishing touches on their outfits, with pool noodles and pipe cleaners on hand along with face paint for last-minute touch-ups.
Dr. Jennifer Willet (left) welcomes spectators to the microbe fashion show. A Bioart student shows off their microbial creation (right) (JUSTIN ELLIOTT @jel_media/University of Windsor)
Luke Leopold, a visual arts student in a spider-like ensemble, said his choice to depict black mold came after stumbling across a website selling microbe plush toys during his research.
"The black mold one was actually really cute," he said. "I looked up the actual microbe and thought it was unique."
Leopold was surprised to learn that black mold — which he fashioned out of pool noodles, chicken wire and thrifted clothing — is not as fatal as he imagined it to be, although still not a welcome houseguest.
Across the room, social work student Sarah Al Badri had draped herself in lace while sporting a lampshade on her head to depict the veiled lady mushroom.
"I decided to go with a fungus," she said. "I really learned about constructing the clothing in the process."
Fatimah Igeefre, a visual arts student, opted to sew a silky yellow dress with a train and then cover it in zip ties and pipe cleaners to represent the hairy appearance of the E. coli bacteria.
Also donning yellow, sporting a raincoat covered in leaves and ticks, Delia Poirier, a visual arts and psychology student, was a hiker's worst nightmare as Lyme disease.
"It's called Lyme, Connecticut," she said of her piece. "Because that's where Lyme disease came from. I went into the forest in Lyme, and this is how I came out."
Izzy Quinones, a communications and visual arts double major, chose aspergillus based on the aesthetic of that microbe. "I saw an image, and the pink colour kind of looked like cherry blossoms," they said. "So I went with that and almost took it a drag route."
Concurrent education and visual arts student Victoria Shalton took on aspergillus as well but went with a blue hue, making note of the project for her future teaching career.
"I was thinking this would be a fun assignment for grade school or high school," she said. "I feel like I can take assignments from this course into when I am a teacher myself."
The microbial parade drew curious onlookers from across the student centre who gathered to cheer on the fungi, bacteria and viruses as they took to the runway.
Each student picked a particular microbe to depict for the project (JUSTIN ELLIOTT @jel_media/University of Windsor)
Community member Pina Ciotoli happened to see the event advertised on the Incubator Art Lab's social media and brought her young daughter.
"She's into art," Ciotoli said. "So I like to show her that art isn't just pen on paper. There are different mediums and ways of doing art. The show was just fantastic."
Spectators had the chance to meet and greet with the microbes after the show and learn a little about their process as well as the organism in question.
When the microbes cleared out for the evening, no hazmat crew was necessary to clean up the mess.
To learn more about Bioart and Willet's work, visit incubatorartlab.com.