Blood is 85% Emotion

Registration holder
Herwig Turk (A)

Formula

Multimedia installation: books, video, plotprint, adhesive letters, bubble-unit, neon.

Application

Blood, merely a body fluid? The Austrian Herwig Turk show that many cultural, political, genealogical and religious constructs are united in the concept “blood”. Claims on the meaning of blood are often very misleading and frequently abused.

According to Turk blood is 85% emotion and can therefore play an important role in the selling of products. Or: blood sells! Not only for the industry delivering blood and blood products to a huge international market but also for the dealers in movies, video’s, nationalist ideas etc..

The enormous number of books with “blood” in their title shows how widespread the various connotations of blood are. The titles give an impression of the approaches and interests coupled to blood and the various types of businesses that have developed around a liquid that was never merely a body fluid.

This large variety of connotations of “blood” is the starting point for the work of Turk in the waiting room for a/o taking blood samples. He compiled a modest library of political, medical, sociological and historical books, and also with novels and cartoons. On the walls there are slogans from various media sources like movies and websites. Video’s of personnel of the hematological ward may be viewed in which they elaborate on their personal ideas of blood. An attractive neon sign and a large image of blood seen from a microscopic perspective finish it off.

Through the information attained whilst waiting the view on the blood that is donated will be influenced by knowledge and emotion. And 85% of this emotion is in our blood.