Wellcome Collection opens ‘Superhuman’

19 July 2012

Glasses, lipstick, false teeth, the contraceptive pill and even your mobile phone - we take for granted how commonplace human enhancements are. From Icarus to i-Limbs, ‘Superhuman’, which opens at Wellcome Collection today, explores the extraordinary ways people have sought to improve, adapt and enhance their body’s performance.

Coinciding with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games, 'Superhuman' brings together more than 100 artworks, artefacts, videos, photographs, comics and medical objects that record our seemingly limitless desire to be more than ourselves.

From a 2000-year-old Egyptian prosthetic toe to the superheroes of sci-fi imagination and the futuristic promises of nano- and biotechnology, the exhibition takes a long view of physical and chemical enhancement and explores the science, myths and cultural reception of body extension. The show features artworks by Matthew Barney, Rebecca Horn, Regina José Galindo, Revital Cohen and others, and takes in contributions from scientists, ethicists and commentators working at the cutting edge of this most exciting, and feared, area of modern science.

Watch the trailer on YouTube for an enhanced preview.

Superhuman runs from 19 July to 16 October 2012.