Today we’d like to introduce you to Lucy McRae.
Hi Lucy, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I design hypothetical worlds using various mediums including film, kinetic sculpture, and conceptual fashion. The through-lines of my 15+ year career are as: to strongly contemplate the human condition and its shifting relationship with nature, and to create science-focused and technologically-driven artworks that make audiences feel the humanity of likely possible futures.
Each project aims to provoke discussion and pioneer new stories about how future technologies will fundamentally alter human intimacy, reproduction, spirituality, biology, and wellness culture. Using the spirit of an explorer, I venture into art and technology realms that are not yet labeled or defined.
My fascination with the human body as an art medium began with 14 years of classical ballet training. After completing my Bachelor’s in interior design from RMIT Australia in 1999, I began to explore the bond between the body and its near environment through the lens of architecture, fashion, and dance. My first foray into the future was designing implantable, emotion-sensing, and wearable tech at a far-future design research laboratory at Philips, using art to provoke emerging technologies.
I’ve exhibited around the globe at Centre Pompidou, Science Museum London, Milan Triennale, National Gallery Victoria, and Venice Biennale. I’ve been in Los Angeles for 5 years, and currently have a solo exhibition Future Sensitive at Honor Fraser Gallery, which includes my short film FUTUREKIN, chronicling a group of women, who have been tasked with curating a tribe of genetically designed kids – “FUTUREKIN”.
The sewing machine has become a tool for prototyping, and during my Venice Biennale commission in 2021, I deepened my curiosity of costume design and want to develop a capsule collection using fashion as a form of education and activism.
Lately, I’ve been consulting to Hollywood writer’s rooms as an expert in world-building and science fact futurism (a word I grapple with) and am excited to see the convergence of my studio practice with large-scale storytelling in film and television. I’m also developing a feature film exploring advanced reproductive technology and its implications on how we will love in the future.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Oftentimes, I’m asked to label my line of work or give myself a title: Body Architect, Science-Fiction Artist, and Futurist are a few from over the years… However, I find it challenging to place this work into just one ‘box’ or label. This is in part because I draw inspiration for my work from many different facets of art, science, and technology.
I have a tendency to place myself in working environments where I do not belong, in a traditional sense– Like Philips: I was not trained in engineering, yet found myself designing Electronic Sensing Jewellery and dresses that blushed and shivered with light. Being in unfamiliar spaces and exploring outside of my comfort zone has been a common occurrence in my career. Getting out of my own way and staying with this discomfort has allowed me to pioneer my own unique path, allowing me to discover themes and perspectives that stretch the imagination and go beyond traditional definitions of “Art” “Science” and “Technology”.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have always been driven by the provocation: How would advanced technologies change our bodies, change our minds? I’m known for creating science f[a]ction worlds which fuse speculation with human intimacy and biological perfection, feeling eerily familiar. I art direct and world-build these complex themes through costumes, wearables, props, and the physical stage. My solo exhibition at Honor Fraser gallery gestures towards a future where advanced genetic engineering will enable humans to be grown in laboratories outside of the womb, shown through sculpture and film.
I am always trying to build worlds physically or thematically. Instead of it being a process of “write a script, find the protagonist, and build the world”, I start with an object, or a costume, or a machine, which becomes the protagonist, and build the world around it. I build these “what if?” scenarios and play them out, trying to understand: Do we want this? If reproducing human biology in a laboratory is possible, should we?’
The work is critical because we are at a crossroads where science is on a mission for biological perfection, but what do we risk losing? I’m intent on keeping the work open to interpretation, encouraging audiences to draw their own conclusions based on their experiences and desires, and in the case of ‘Future Sensitive’ at Honor Fraser, becoming active participants in the work as it extends out from the screen into the rooms of the gallery.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lucymcrae.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucymcrae/
Image Credits
Main Image: FUTUREKIN BTS – Image Credit: John Kiefer Additional Photos 1. Solitary Survival Raft – Photo: Ariel Fisher 2. FUTUREKIN – Photo: Brian Overend 3. Delicate Spells of Mind – Photo: May Xiong 4. Biometric Mirror Tech Temple – Photo: Scottie Cameron 5. Future Sensitive Photo: Scottie Cameron
