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26/9/2000

Paradise now

Exit Art, New York

Picturing the genetic revolution.

In PARADISE NOW, through October 28 at Exit Art, 39 artists from around the world examine the meaning and implications of breakthroughs in genetic research.

The exhibition includes work by Aziz + Cucher; Helen Chadwick; George Gessert; Rebecca Howland, Karl S. Mihail; Tran T. Kim-Trang; Frank Moore; Alexis Rockman; Bradley Rubenstein; Christy Rupp; Gary Schneider; Carrie Mae Weems; Gail Wight; Janet Zweig, and many others.

In installation and mixed-media works, interactive and on-line projects, photographs, painting and sculpture, the artists in the exhibition address a number of issues, including: the implications of genetic research confirming that humans of all races are 99.9 percent genetically the same; ownership of genes and whether they should be patented and sold to the highest bidder; germ-line gene therapy and how it could be used to design babies and/or improve the health of human beings before they are born; DNA identification and who has access to the information; and how gene therapy and new technologies will be used to prevent and treat disease; and risks and benefits of genetically engineered food crops and animals.

Paradise Now is divided into two sections. The first section features works addressing research into the nature of the human genome. Among them are Nancy Burson's THE HUMAN RACE MACHINE, an interactive PHOTO BOOTH where visitors can scan their own facial image into a computer and have it transformed into five different ethnic variations -- East Indian, Latino, Asian, Caucasian, and African; and Iigo Manglano-Ovalle's twin cryogenic sperm banks color-coded pink and blue by the artist and stocked accordingly with sex-selected sperm samples.

The second section features works exploring the implications of biotechnology on animal and plant life. Among them are: a seven-foot-tall marble sculpture of a mouse, created by Bryan Crockett as an homage to man and to mouse; (in this case the "Oncomouse" developed to aid cancer research) and an oversized living portrait of sun bathers on a beach rendered in genetically engineered, photosensitive grass by the British team of Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey.

Also in this section is GENESIS, in which Eduardo Kac converts a passage from the Book of Genesis into DNA code and then applies that code to create a form of living bacteria. As people all over the world connect to the piece via the Internet, their on-line "visits" activate a light box, which in turn spurs the growth of the bacteria -- seen in real-time in the installation via computer monitor.

In association with the exhibition at Exit, Creative Time presented a outdoor exhibition of three artist-designed billboards as part of DNAid, a series of art projects addressing the implications of today's genetic research on our futures. The billboards series, Artist Picturing Our Genetic Futures, (through September 30) featured Haluk Akakce The Measure of All Things (Digital Video Still) at Carmine and Varick Streets; Nancy Burson, Five images from the Human Race Machine at Canal and Church Streets; and Alexis Rockman, The Farm at Lafayette and Houston Streets.

A new public opinion poll on Americans' attitudes towards different aspects of genetic research will be undertaken by The Gene Media Forum of the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, in conjunction with the exhibition.

Organizers: Marvin Heiferman and Carole Kismaric, Lookout Sponsorship: The Bohen Foundation, Jerome Foundation, The Joy of Giving Something, Inc., Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and members of Exit Art

CREATIVE TIME DNAid -- http://www.creativetime.org

For more information, visit the PARADISE NOW web site

NEW YORK CITY, NY Panel Discussion: October 14 - 2-4 PM RSVP: 212-966-7745 x-21 Exit Art, 548 Broadway

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