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17/4/2002

Lecture by Dr Tom Shakespeare

The Hatton Gallery, Newcastle

Lecture by Dr Tom Shakespeare
Marc Quinn's Sir John Sulston: A Genomic Portrait
Thursday 18th April 1.30pm (Admission Free)

Tom Shakespeare has followed Marc Quinn's career with great interest, and will be talking about the aesthetic, social and scientific aspects of the Genomic Portrait. This lecture is open to all.

In the context of the exhibition: A Genomic Portrait: Sir John Sulston, by Marc Quinn 16/03/02 - 24/05/02

Marc Quinn's conceptual portrait, unveiled in September 2001, uses Sulston's DNA so that, whilst not depicting the geneticist's features, the portrait is an exact representation of the sitter in that it presents us with a detail of his genome, and therefore carries the actual instructions that led to his creation, capturing all that is unique about him.

Sir John Sulston is the UK's leading figure in the development ov DNA analysis and played a pivotal role in the development of the Human Genome Project - an international effort to produce the genetic 'book' of humankind. He led the UK arm of the project to produce a working draft of the human genome which was successfully completed in June 2000.Marc Quinn is best known for Self, a sculpture in which the artist's head was cast in his own frozen blood.

With a physicist father and an artist mother, he has become an artist constantly engaged in lines of enquiry as scientfic as they are aesthetic.Sir John Sulston said, 'The portrait is the result of a standard laboratory procedure, transposed into the setting of the gallery. Does this change of viewpoint alter our perception of the object, and of the techniques that gave rise to it? The portrait contains a small fraction of my DNA, so its only a detail of the whole, though there is ample information to identify me. Each spot in the portrait is a colony grown from a single bacterial cell containing a segment of my DNA.'

The portrait will be supported by photographic portraits of the artist and sitter, taken by Marc Quinn, and a contextual display about the Human Genome Project.

One of the most exciting and high profile exhibitions in the Hatton's 100 year history, the exhibition also marks the first showing, outside London, of the National Portrait Gallery's first ever 'conceptual portrait', Marc Quinn's Genomic Portrait of Sir John Sulston. Marc Quinn's conceptual portrait, unveiled in September 2001, uses Sulston's DNA so that, whilst not depicting the geneticist's features, it is an exact representation of the sitter in that it presents us with a detail of his genome, and therefore carries the actual instructions that led to his creation, capturing all that is unique about him.

Image: Sir John Sulston: A Genomic Portrait Marc Quinn

The Hatton Gallery
The Quadrangle University of Newcastle Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
Open: Monday-Friday 10.00am-5.30pm
Saturday 10.00am-4.30pm
ADMISSION FREE

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