RETURN TO ARCHIVE
What makes for the fullness and perfection of life, for beauty and happiness, is good. What makes for death, disease, imperfection, suffering is bad, 2000
Details
Installation of new works. All dimensions variable.
Hela Hot - Live Cell Culture, Video Microscope, Shelf
AFP Cold - Vial of cells in Dry ice, Polystyrene Box
The Aether Sea - 2 DVD players, 2 LCD projectors, 2 ‘Fast-fold’ screens and DNA Gel suspended in Glyceron on Scientific Rocking mechanism.
Spirit Collection - 100 glass jars suspended on steel cable, each containing bleached plane leaf.
Infantile Paralysis: Endless Walk (engraved by Duchenne, 1858) - 2 DVD players, 2 LCD projectors
Photography: Ruth Clark & Colin Ruscoe
Links
DESCRIPTION
Working in the context of Dundee's growing international reputation as a locus of innovative research in the life sciences, Borland's new work has developed out of her relationship in recent months with researchers in the field of human genetics. Using a variety of materials currently employed in DNA research, the work employs the strong visual qualities of these substances to explore the serendipity of nature itself.
The exhibition's starting point was a blood sample given as part of a routine a screening procedure for congenital abnormalities during the artist's pregnancy. Encompassing significant and emotive issues such as the ownership of genes and the drive to eradicate abnormalities, the exhibition brings together representations of a number of life forms, connected through their unnerving formal similarities. Including some of the tools of genetic research used to visualise identity and difference, a key concept for the exhibition is that of the family tree and the transference of information and 'characteristics' through its system.
Exploiting the stunning visual appearance of the most fundamental living forms, the atmospheric installation creates an environment in which life literally appears suspended. Connecting contemporary technological innovation with much earlier means of visual analysis, the exhibition prompts consideration of our responses to difference and its significance in human identity.
Extract from DCA Press Release