Technology and touch is at the centre of an installation exploring the comfort of the embrace — fueling important dialogue on the complex future realities of human connection

Heavy Duty Love is an immersive, working prototype exploring the imminent realities, and challenges, of engineering both the human body and human condition. The installation is situated at the Venice Biennale Architettura's Among Diverse Beings section alongside thirteen global artists and designers.

“How Will We Live Together?” – The 17th International Architecture Exhibition running to 21 November 2021.

Among Diverse Beings will be shown at the Arsenale and will encompass both Designing for New Bodies: addressing changes in the perception and conception of the human body; and Living with Other Beings: foregrounding empathetic behavior and engagement with other beings

A cautionary narrative in an uncomfortable, complex debate on the scientific acceleration directing our evolutionary path —from gene-edited babies to CRISPR to AI — Heavy Duty Love is a mental health prop existent as a tactile mechanical structure, asking, “As we head toward a life designed from scratch, will we seek new types of intimacy?”

Realised as a speculative domestic device compensating for a lack of human touch in early life, Heavy Duty Love sandwiches the body between layers of soft, dampening materials normally used in contemporary camping or construction. In McRae’s envisioning, just one of many sponge-like machines created to form trust and connection by replicating the protective embrace of a parent or womb, missing by virtue of lab grown origins

“I made this machine because I am curious about the human consequences of bypassing the womb and that first hug of a “mother” — envisioning a new generation of children having radically different formative years, developing new types of sensitivities and neurobiological quirks. Heavy Duty Love questions whether these future sensitive humans will find new ways for intimacy and togetherness. More broadly, my work wants to connect the public with the main bulk of science and biotech, cracking open debate around how these God-like technologies will change what makes us human forevermore.”

In Walter Isaacson's non-fiction book Code Breaker we learn about gene editing, and the Future of the Human Race — scientific experiments point to a future in which childbirth is questioned, Lucy McRae is considering the new products we'll need in this new reproductive landscape. The experiential machine Heavy Duty Love, unveiled at the Venice Architecture Biennale, acts as a comfort blanket, evoking sensations of a supportive embrace and therefore a new type of nurture for a humans who have bypassed the womb.

Raising questions about human contact and intimacy in the far future, the interest is foreseeing what products we may need in an age in which childbirth is engineered. 

McRae's project reflects the future need for preserving early life intimacy and contact in humans.

Merging this complexity with the familiar, McRae will also bring science to the street level, extending the Heavy Duty Love project through a ready-to-wear fashion label, Future Sensitive Human — an accompanying consumer range again fabricated with mental health in mind, designed to transmit strength through sensitivity.

The machine-wearables are mini architectures that nurture and connect the body to the device. Large furniture-like cushions made from tarpaulin, carpet underlay and industrial velcro, surround the body’s perimetre –– lean against the machine and you’re ready to be squeezed. The machine is performed by four people; two squeezed, two operators –– all participants wear uniforms “the garments” belonging to a larger committee, intervention and institute, dedicated to investigating futurekind.

I bought an industrial machine and taught myself how to sew. The certainty of sewing, contrasted highly with the fluctuations of the outer world –– turns out I’m a forth generation sewer.

Heavy Duty Love. Commissioned by La Biennale Di Venezia

Curated by Hashim Sarkis

Curatorial team – Gabriel Kozlowski, Roi Salgueiro and Ala Tannir

Supported by – SCI_Arc and Creative Victoria

Machine credit

Artist – Lucy McRae

Studio Assistant – Christian Pepper

Production Design – Tina Joyner

Technical Director/ System Design – Steven Joyner

Custom Soft Goods/ Wearables – Lucy McRae

Graphic Design – Lucy McRae, Christian Pepper

Photo credit

Art/ Creative Direction – Lucy McRae

Studio Assistant – Christian Pepper

Photography – Brian Overend

Art Department – Christian Pepper, Vivian Charlesworth, Yun Ki Cheung, Miriam Kuhlmann, Ian Wong

Producer – Nina Tahash

Cast – Samantha West, Cathy Cooper, Rhoda Pell, Vee Kumari, Audrey Levan, Lucy McRae

Makeup/Hair – Mike Fernandez

Stylist – Amiee Byrne

Special thanks to Alice Parker, Jasmine Albuquerque, Scottie Cameron, Ryan Carmody and Gabriel Kozlowski