While examining biological material in a medical research laboratory on a residency at St James’ hospital, I observed the beauty and strangeness of life at a cellular level.
I also aimed to visualise and question more problematic ideas; that in our consumer culture we increasingly view and reduce embryonic and genetic material to a patentable commodity, a way of thinking which directly imitates corporate materialism but often fails to address ethical, spiritual or ecological values.
The work was further developed furing my NCAD MA 3-month placement in Valand College, Goteborg, Sweden.
installation
artworks
Video
‘it’s hard to imagine…‘ (2001) 3 min. loop
Genetic material can now be patented as an invention, inventions are property, vulnerable to human desires…
This almost silent video was projected up large in a small, unlit room in Valand, Gothenburg Art college gallery, surrounding the viewer, the audio at times coming from various parts of the room.
spoken text ”…’it’s hard to imagine…. i’m somewhere in here… and you are too… gene sequence, patent no. BR14Q…”
video visuals:
video footage of moving human cells magnified under microscope. Footage recorded at St James Hospital, Dublin during my MA at NCAD.
drawings
The finished drawings were first exhibited in the rotor2 Gallery, Valand Art College, Goteburg, Sweden, 2001
Notes on the drawings:
The following quote may suggest the limitation of a singular rational view – ‘having labeled a thing, you no longer see that thing, you see its label instead.’
Untitled (after observing chick embryos forming) (2001)
Irish Times, 2005. Drawings exhibited at Trinity College Dublin, Zoology Dept and at British Festival of Science, 2005, Dublin.
Embryo drawings in the Zoology Genetic Laboratories, TCD, 2004
The drawings with the Passion Survey were also exhibited at the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland (2004)
Exhibition at the Royal College of Surgeons. Invitation from Dr. Brenda Moore-McCann
background information in article, ‘life in the round‘ :
The Hollywood Forest Story : An EcoSocial Art Practice | Co. Carlow Ireland 