Can You Grow Your Own Meat?
In 2000, he and his team grew “Pig Wings,” wing-shaped collections of pig tissue which poetically highlight the improbability of tissue engineering proponents’ outlandish promises (“... when pigs fly”). 2003’s “Disembodied Cuisine” saw Catts growing and eating in vitro meat, making him part of the first team in history to do so but also exploring cultural perceptions of what is edible through the project’s use of “frog steak.” 2004’s “Victimless Leather” involved growing a tiny leather jacket made out mouse and human cells, which ultimately put the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition curator in an ethically ambiguous position when she pulled the plug on the piece, effectively “killing” the jacket.
