see what kills you (2009)
Interdisciplinary project with Dr. Tobias Hohenauer, Biologist.
Tobias Hohenauer has recently submitted his thesis on molecular basics of cancer. Anke Angermeyer also had to deal with this illness in the past. Several members of her family fell ill of cancer or even died of it. Her work "Tante Gitta" ("Aunt Gitta") of 2006 she already artistically dealt with this topic. Back then, photographs showed the patient, struggling with the effects of chemotherapy.
Cancer itself however cannot be seen this way. It remains hidden in the patient’s body, in most cases not curable, deadly, bringing nothing but destruction, worry and grief.
Hardly anybody ever gets to see with what they have to deal with, what they are devoured by. "see what kills you" shows the originator, in his smallest functional unit, the cell.
Representing cancer itself, cells of malignant melanoma, cervical carcinoma and neuroblastoma were used. They were extracted from solid tumors, grown in cell culture, stained by immunocytochemistry and finally photographed under the microscope.
"see what kills you" consists of three photographs of cells from different tumor types, in green fluorescent brightness, in all their fascinating, horrible beauty.