The project arises from an interest in recreating aesthetic implants with biodegradable material obtained from agar-agar (seaweed).

Soft shields, usually hidden under the skin, cause the observer to oscillate between temptation and repulsion. Viscosity and agglomeration, naked flesh, and designed shapes, organic and artificial, freedom of power and populist criticism, abandonment, and control. Everything becomes swollen and almost on the verge of breaking.

Beginning in 2019, the artists conducted studies on cosmetic surgery and medical silicone to be able to reproduce body implants for breasts and buttocks using biodegradable materials such as agar-agar. At first sight, the material might resemble silicone, but on the contrary, its fragile properties deem a short life cycle. The same biodegradable prosthetics have been later reproduced as part of tailor-made costumes for the movement research and video project titled Fleshquake, which premiered at De School Amsterdam in 2020 and Dutch Design Week in 2020.

Ingredients: Agar agar, water, raspberries

Exhibited during “What’s a Body if Not a Shell”, at The Grey Space in The Middle, Den Haag

Project by Raquel Sánchez Gálvez & Greta Desirèe Facchinato in collaboration with photographer Yres Isabella.

This material is included in the Future Materials Bank's archive and in the Materials Design Map