Genetics/Memetics
Artist’s Statement

Originally conceived for a solo exhibition at Pirate Gallery in Denver, Colorado, this room installation is this artist’s fantasy about the collision between genetic engineering and the new science termed ‘memetics.’ Two black and white collages measuring 18"Hx35"L were designed as the long walls for a scale maquette of the planned installation space. The artist utilized the tenet of ‘memetics’, which is cross cultural transfer and selected and altered images by artists as broad ranging as Albrecht Dürer, Grandville, Margaret Bourke White, E.J. Eyermann, Ed Hurwitz and Ralph Morse (plus a few artists which time has consigned to anonymity) into a fantastic amalgamation of biological/cultural evolution. The two small collages were digitally scanned and enlarged eight hundred percentinto an Italian Océ 9800 plotter. This large format printer then printed the images on seven hundred and twenty feet of cotton vellum. Each panel measuring three feet wide by thirteen and a half feet long.
At the north end of the gallery I built a seven-foot tall steel cage which housed a handmade industrial style table with a set of glass slides with humorous textual messages in very small type and a vintage microscope. Walls in the South end of the gallery were painted red and hung with baroque frames that housed images of "Dolly" (the genetically engineered sheep), a reflecting mirror and molecular reproductions of humanchromosomes. Framed prints of the original two collages were hung against southwest wall. These limited edition of prints on translucent cotton vellum in the original working size of 18"H x 35"L are available unframed for 195.00 each.