Ivorish

Nina van den Broek is an artist and critical designer based in Rotterdam. She operates a design and science blog under the pseudonym Steven McKean.

As an intern of the Open Wetlab at Waag, an interdisciplinary public research organization, van den Broek investigated the similarities between elephant ivory and human and animal teeth. There have been initiatives to ‘flood’ the black market with false ivory and rhinoceros horn with methods such as 3D printing. Van den Broek created a versatile, novel ‘ivory’ – Ivorish – by pulverising human milk teeth and mixing the powder with a binding agent – an ivory without any legal or ethical restrictions. A ring from this material evokes a visual association with the tusks of elephants. It also confronts human disgust with using resources from our own bodies but lack of discomfort with using the same products from animals.