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26/8/2003

Gene(sis)

Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley

Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics

From glowing bacteria to transgenic mice and ''manimals,'' Gene(sis) presents artists' visions of a post-genomic future. Featuring nearly one hundred works by renowned and emerging contemporary artists, this exhibition was coproduced by the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington and BAM/PFA.

Gene(sis) takes its name from a 1999 work by conceptual artist Eduardo Kac, Genesis, in which he investigates the philosophical and political dimensions of communication and biotechnology. The artist translated a verse from the Book of Genesis into Morse code (the first code of the telecommunications age), and from there, using a system of his own devising, into genetic code employing the letters of the four building blocks of DNA: A, T, C, and G. Using the resulting sequence of letters, Kac then created actual genetic material and introduced it into live bacteria, which he cultured in a petri dish. By clicking the mouse at the computer terminal in the gallery or on the exhibition website ( http://www.gene-sis.net ), visitors will be able to cause mutations in the bacteria (or, by reversing the translation process, rewrite the language in the Bible).

Other works in Gene(sis) engage with the emotional effects of cloning, as in the fictional portraits of a woman caring for her younger clone by Margi Geerlinks; genetic engineering, as in the disturbing photographs by Catherine Chalmers of mice used in transgenic experiments; and bio-technocracy, as in Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle's portraits of friends and family, in which human likeness is replaced by bland DNA sequencing. New projects unique to the Berkeley presentation of Gene(sis) have been created by Bay Area artists Gail Wight and Jim Campbell.

An accompanying online exhibition, g-commerce ( http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibits/g-commerce ), developed by BAM/PFA Digital Media Director Rick Rinehart and Associate Curator Alla Efimova, looks at the future of e-commerce with its increasing variety of genetic materials and services for sale.

In conjunction with Gene(sis), the Pacific Film Archive presents Genetic Screenings, a survey of some of the more provocative moving-image works that have engaged the genome as either focus or foil. It includes films as diverse as the controversial 1932 feature Island of Lost Souls and the 1994 stop-motion animation phenomenon The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb.

Gene(sis) will be the featured exhibition in the fall issue of BAM/PFA Art & Film Notes, along with complete descriptions of related public programs, films, and Web-based exhibits.

Alla Efimova
Associate Curator


The exhibition was organized by the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, in affiliation with the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. The exhibition is curated by the Henry Art Gallery's Associate Curator Robin Held and, for the Berkeley presentation, BAM/PFA Senior Curator for Exhibitions Constance Lewallen and Associate Curator Alla Efimova.

The exhibition and related programs are made possible with generous support from the Animating Democracy Initiative, a program of Americans for the Arts, funded by the Ford Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; The Rockefeller Foundation; The Allen Foundation for the Arts; PONCHO; The Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities; SAFECO; King County Arts Commission Special Projects Program; ZymoGenetics, Inc.; The University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences; and in-kind support from Carl Zeiss, Inc.; The Grand Hyatt Seattle; Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media; KUOW Public Radio; WRQ, Inc.; New Concepts Prototyping; Speakeasy Network; Northwest Mannequin; University of Washington Division of Genetic Pathology; and University Bookstore Computer and Electronics Center.

The BAM/PFA presentation of Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics is supported in part by the Consortium for the Arts, the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, UC Extension at UC Berkeley, and The Harold and Alma White Memorial Fund. Exclusive media sponsor for Gene(sis) is the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
2625 Durant Avenue #2250 Berkeley, CA 94720-2250

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