The Butterfly in the Brain continues Anker's investigation into the visualizing techniques available through high technology simulation. The exhibition focuses on a dialogue of signs within the symmetrical (or nearly symmetrical) structures of chromosomes, the butterfly and the brain, all of which possess an axis copy.
The Butterfly in the Brain
"What at last, of the patterns of body plans, which stimulated Turing in the
first place?" Philip Ball, Editor at Nature
Universal Concepts Unlimited announces the opening of "The Butterfly in the
Brain", an exhibition of recent sculpture and works on paper by Suzanne
Anker on view from April 11th through May 18th.
The Butterfly in the Brain continues Anker's investigation into the
visualizing techniques available through high technology simulation: the
microscope, the telescope, the MRI scan. The exhibition focuses on a
dialogue of signs within the symmetrical (or nearly symmetrical) structures
of chromosomes, the butterfly and the brain, all of which possess an axis
copy. Through pictorial substitution, demarcation, and relocation Anker
creates a body of work out of science-based data.
MRI scans are transposed into butterfly wings showing a comparison between
marking patterns in nature and advanced imaging technologies. Like
constellations in the sky, butterfly shapes are found in gogglia and even
maps of urban sprawl. From correspondence to correspondence pictures
emerge and are transformed by this method. "Engram" for example, a set of
inkjet prints in nine parts is composed completely from brain diagrams
appropriated from textbooks. By superimposing multiple images on top of
one another, an array of icons appear: ET, Buddha, a heart, a yogi, a sexual
orifice, etc. The exhibition, mostly in black and white, continues
Ms. Anker's use of digital technologies.
Suzanne Anker's optical installation Zoosemiotics was part of Devices of
Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen at the J.Paul Getty
Museum of Art, November, 2001-Februrary, 2002. Her forthcoming book
(with Dorothy Nelkin) entitled The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age
will be published by Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory Press in 2003.
In the picture: 'Zoosemiotics' (1993)
Gallery Hours: Tuesday  Saturday 11AM  6 PM.
U N I V E R S A L C O N C E P T S U N L I M I T E D
507 West 24h Street
New York, NY 10011
212.727.7575
http://www.geneculture.org