MEDIA CONTACT: Judy Moore at 847-491-4819 or jkm229@northwestern.edu

July 6, 2004

Block Exhibition to Examine Human Genome Research

EVANSTON, Ill. --- An exhibition of photographs, installations, video and computer-mediated art on the culturally challenging and ethically controversial theme of human genome research opens to the public Sept. 10 at the Northwestern University Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston campus.

“Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics” will be on exhibition through Nov. 28. A related free symposium will be held Oct. 2. 

From digitally altered photographs of transgenic beings to abstract gene-mapping paintings, the exhibition will probe the potential social, emotional and ethical implications of one of the most fascinating subjects of our time.

“Gene(sis)” will feature more than 50 works by renowned and emerging artists including Christine Borland, Chicago-based artists Eduardo Kac and Iñigo Mañglano-Ovalle, and Dario Robleto.

Organized by the Henry Art Gallery in affiliation with the University of California’s Berkeley Museum, “Gene(sis)” explores ways in which our understanding of science, including recent genomic developments, are inextricably bound with our understanding of language and art and multifaceted use of new technologies and science.

“Like other arenas of culture, contemporary art can illuminate many issues of controversy in our culture, the ultimate means of the human genome among them,” said “Gene(sis)” Curator Robin Held, associate curator of the University of Washington’s Henry Art Gallery in Seattle.

“’Gene(sis)’  interweaves humorous commentary, theatrical installations, documentary images and pseudo (or actual) scientific laboratory situations, elucidating certain technical advances for a lay audience. It exploits the power of contemporary art to provoke, to question and to articulate new paradigms, providing conditions necessary for a deeper understanding and a fuller discussion of genomic issues.”

Block Museum Director David Alan Robertson is pleased to mount this exhibition in the metropolitan Chicago area. “As a University museum, we are interested in exploring cutting-edge ideas that challenge boundaries and conventional approaches to knowledge between art and science as in this case,” he said.The exhibition is organized into four general themes: “sequence” -- work that explores the rhetoric and media representations of genomics; “boundary” -- artists’ investigations of the now permeable boundaries between species; “specimen” -- work that engages questions of DNA ownership, personal privacy and the management of genetic information; and “subject” -- artists’ re-imaginings of individual subjectivity, family and human “nature” in the wake of recent genomic developments.

The free symposium, “Outside-In: Exploring the Human Genome Project from Across the Disciplines,” will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2, at the Block Museum. Since the “Gene(sis)” exhibition probes the potential ethical, social and emotional implications of genetic research, exhibition curator Robin Held will join Northwestern University faculty during the daylong symposium delving into the impact of genomics on all aspects of human life and culture.

For more information, call the museum at (847) 491-4000 or visit the museum’s Web site at http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu or the “Gene(sis)” Web site at http://www.gene-sis.net.