Art Meets Medical Treatment - Lamb Dialys (GALLERY)

Revital Cohen is a second year student at the London Royal College of Art.

She is fascinated by the inhumane effect dialysis machines have on patients with defunct kidneys.

In a presentation of her work at the SHOW RCA 2008, which is a series of four individual exhibitions of contemporary work of Royal College of Art postgraduate students’ studio work and research before they fan out into he world, one of her ideas struck me as very poetic:

The idea is to use a lamb in stead of a kidney dialysis machine.

The concept is inspired by several advances of science such as the creation of cows and sheep cloned to have human blood in their bodies, or even to grow human organs.

• Take a sheep and have it bear a lamb which is re engineered to have the same blood as the patient with a kidney deficiency.
• During the day the lamb can play in the backyard of the patient.
• During the night the patient can hook up with the lamb and have the blood revitalized.
• The patient is more likely to connect with the lamb than with a machine in a dialysis center.

For a video of the boring dialysis process you can click here at RCA