The Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany, has put on display a copy of Vincent van Gogh's ear that was grown using some of the renowned artist's genetic material.
The nineteenth-century Dutch painter is said to have severed his left ear lobe with a razor blade in a fit of lunacy after he had a row with fellow artist Paul Gauguin one evening in December 1888, although a 2009 book by historians Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans, contends that Vincent van Gogh may have made up the whole story to protect his friend Gauguin, a keen fencer, who actually lopped it off with a sword during a heated argument.
The ear was created by artist Diemut Strebe using technology developed by MIT’s Robert Langer and Charles Vacanti from Harvard, who in 1995 successfully recreated a human ear on the back of a mouse. Computer imaging technology was used to make sure the ear looks as much as possible like van Gogh’s own.
It took Strebe more than three years to produce the work and track down van Gogh’s DNA. The replica ear consists of living cells grown from samples provided by Lieuwe van Gogh, the great-great-grandson of Vincent's brother, Theo. The museum says Lieuwe and Vincent van Gogh share about 1/16th of the same genes, including the Y-chromosome that is passed down the male lineage.
As part of the installation, visitors can talk to the ear. The input sound is processed by a computer using software that converts it to simulate nerve impulses in real time.
The ear, which Strebe has named "Sugababe," will be on display at the museum until July 6. Strebe plans to show the ear at the Feldman Gallery in New York next spring. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which declined to get involved in the development of the project, has so far expressed no interest in exhibiting the installation.