Site of Extraction is a research and performance art project interrogating extractive labor, bodily commodification, and the bioeconomics surrounding the blood plasma donation industry. Plasma donation centers operate predominantly in lower-income neighborhoods where each donation is fractionated — a process patented by Big Pharma — into products like Factor VIII used by hemophiliacs. Donors are paid for their "time," not the raw biomatter extracted from them.
This project continues my work bringing mutual aid into a conceptual and performance practice focused on financial redistribution. Earlier projects used art grants to support families during COVID and staged collective fundraising through shared physical acts (13 pounds of pennies carried on the NYC subway to assemble $20). A consistent theme runs through this work: who bears physical risk, who absorbs inconvenience, and who remains buffered from both? The plasma donation industry is a lens onto something larger: the value of human life, what we owe each other, and the social logic that makes certain bodies more available for certain uses.
Site of Extraction is the latest iteration of a question driving my practice for years: to what extreme, tedious, or absurd ends will I go to generate new money for mutual aid?
