IONAT ZURR: So, my name is Ionat Zurr
and my practice is loosely defined as biological art or bio art.
My practice is working with life or living system
as a medium for artistic expression.
Both as a material, if you want,
but also as a subject matter.

QUESTION: WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST MEMORY OF ART?

My experience with art grow, I guess, for my childhood,
I think that with my mom, especially, we would go to many art galleries.
I grew up in a different country, I grew up in Israel,
and we went to many galleries over there,
but I believe that art is everywhere, art is part of the world.
So when you ask, when was your first experience with art?
I would say, you know,
the moment you are born part of life is art.

QUESTION: WHAT HAS BEEN A TURNING POINT IN YOUR CAREER?

My career thrived a lot because of the geographical position
where I was, which is Perth,
Perth in Western Australia.
Over there at that time many years ago,
I'm not a spring chicken anymore.
At the time we could work a little bit,
but still be able to have enough time to pursue artistic career
and artistic exploration and curiosity.
This is something that today, I think, is much harder for artists
because they have to work much harder in order just to barely survive.
Also at that time, there was much more support,
both, I would say, in terms of the importance of art,
as well as funding for the arts
that enable us to follow some of the ideas that we were pursuing,
that especially at that time in the early '90s,
the idea of using biology or biotechnology
and manipulation of life as an artistic medium
was unheard of at the time.
We were kind of, if you want to say, the pioneers,
or some of us say the 'bio-neers' in the area around the world as well.
And it was only in Perth that we could actually follow this idea.
We approached a scientist called Professor Miranda Grounds,
and she was very supportive.
Anywhere other in the world, no one would listen to us,
to artists actually wanting to go into scientific laboratories
and grow tissue into sculptures
and it was Perth that enable us to do so.
So I would say that sometime actually being in the periphery,
actually doing it in Perth, was a major advantage for us.
The other thing of course,
was the support from the Australia Council,
which, you know, we forever will be grateful for,
and also PICA, the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art
that was directed by Sarah Miller at the time,
that was very excited about those two artists
who at the time didn't have much track record,
especially not in Australia,
coming with this crazy idea of showing living sculptures
and enable us to do the first show over there.

QUESTION: HOW DO YOU SURVIVE AS AN ARTIST?

Because my art is not, I cannot sell my art,
this is not the purpose of my art, a lot of my art is bio-degradable.
I want my art to actually challenge,
and it is not beautiful,
and it does not suit everyone's taste.
It's more experimental, it's temporal, it's ephemeral.
My only way to survive is through academia.
So I am a doctor in the arts, if you want,
and I am the chair of the fine arts discipline
in the University of Western Australia,
so that's the way I survive.
I also enjoy it a lot, not just because of the research,
but also because I'm supervising and teaching
the future generation of artists.
And they are much more talented than I am,
and they're going to inherit this world.
So for me, this is a great pleasure to teach,
but also learn from them.
I'm a lucky person to be able to do my art
and survive through teaching the arts.