Your Kidney Supermarket
Your Kidney Supermarket
In her installation Your Kidney Supermarket and the webproject xeno.bio.lab, Indian artist Shilpa Gupta portrays a gloomy image of the global organ trading system where moral concerns have no place. In this candy-coloured world the organ is becoming a goody whose trade is based on capitalist principles. The bizarre and out of control consumer greed of the First World, often concealed by the utopia of beneficial globalisation, is exposed by the artworks' pretty showcases, in which "take-away" kidneys are waiting for their customer, and luxurious offers are available online for medicinal tourism. Visitors are informed about organ trade routes, reminiscent of colonial times, as well as the life history of donors who sell their organs for financial reasons. Shilpa Gupta's selection of medium and means for her artwork is not solely based on electronic media, but also on considerations of role behaviour and social grievance.