Fertility Reimagined: MC Stevens talks with Fischer Cherry at Pulse Miami 2017

Fertility, 2017, installation view and artist portrait. Image courtesy of the artist

The artistic personification of fertility has been practically unchanged since the prehistoric Venus of Willendorf: A young woman with large breasts and wide hips. Advancements in medicine and technology are quickly revising that image. Reproduction has been liberated from its former biological constraints, and fertility is starting to look as diverse as the rest of the world. Babies have been brought to term in a transplanted uterus using donated or frozen eggs, and an artificial womb is in development that would allow for gestation outside of the human body (it has been successfully tested with lamb fetuses). Alongside other fertility technologies, people previously unable to conceive — including trans men and women, post-menopausal women, and those with acquired infertility due to disease or injury — have been given a chance to continue their lineage beyond what, in the past, could have been a genetic dead-end.

Fischer Cherry’s Fertility installation at Pulse Miami Beach 2017 presents a material view of this technology: Syringes and vials that previously held fertility drugs are afforded the care given to relics, preciously arranged in lead crystal glassware the artist received from her grandmother. Rendered “infertile” herself from an autoimmune disorder, Cherry’s work combines autobiography with a broader critique of sex, gender, family, and reproduction, calling into question the previously unchanging image of fertility as a nubile young woman: With technological augmentation, soon it could look like anybody.

Fertility, 2017, installation view. Image courtesy of the artist.

I met Fischer Cherry at the Pulse Preview Brunch in the VIP section, a space delineated by an installation of crystal vessels holding syringes and vials. The Waterford crystal reflected prisms in the morning light, extracting beauty from struggle and loss. Cherry and I sat down in the space that she had created, watching the wealthy and connected line up for the buffet of quiche and finger sandwiches. The objects on display reminded me of my own unsuccessful attempt at IVF that left me broke and childless. I’m sure that many women at the preview could relate to Cherry’s fertility journey.

Arcade Project: The installation looks incredible. The juxtaposition of medical waste with crystal places a fresh aesthetic onto a subject which can be dry and clinical. Why did you choose Waterford crystal vessels?

Fischer Cherry: I chose the Waterford crystal because it was from my Irish grandmother and I thought it was interesting to explore the matrilineal lineage of not only crystal but also fertility.

AP: Roland Barthes wrote about the traces left behind in a photograph by the people who have grown and changed and died since it was taken. Every photograph preserves a particular moment, but there is a sense of loss in that it’s never fully accessible again outside of the picture. Physical objects can carry similar traces: The syringes and other medical waste in your installation were used by particular people at a certain time and place, and still contain remnants of each donor’s genetic material. Do you find that these items add an aura to your work?

FC: I do feel they have an aura or almost talisman-esque property. When I went through the bins my hands would shake physically touching items that physically represented a woman’s greatest desire, hope and oftentimes failure and heartbreak.

Fertility, 2017, Glass cake stand, Follistim pens. Image courtesy of the artist.

AP: Where are you currently on your fertility journey?

FC: After Art Basel, I’m headed back to New York to have surgery on my endometriosis in hopes that it improves my chances of conceiving.

AP: Are you planning to add to or continue with this body of work as you proceed?

FC: Yes, I would love for this installation to travel to New York, London, LA, and beyond as I truly feel this is worldwide phenomenon.

AP: Can you say more about whether you will add to the work? Will the work grow with the process?

FC: I think the scale will grow but a lot of that will depend on space. And hopefully incorporating more and more womens’ stories along with their donations of medical waste.

Fertility, 2017, Waterford Crystal, Leuprolide Acetate syringes, used Menopur syringes, glass cake dome, glass cake stand, Menopur vials, needles. Image courtesy of the artist

Fischer Cherry is a multi-discipline artist living and working in New York. She received a BA from Northwestern University and an MFA from the Brooks Institute of Photography. Her work has been shown at Sargent’s Daughters and Garis & Hahn in New York, and is in the permanent collection of the Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton.