AMATEUR GODS
Genetic information
In human beings, each cell normally contains twenty-three pairs of chromosomes, which carry our DNA organized in 4 nucleotide bases: adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine. All the data that dictates our body and psyche. What will my eye colour be like? Will I be more prone to contracting skin cancer? Will I be afraid of heights? In times of groundbreaking technology and genetic engineering advances, I explore ways in which technology and its newest discoveries can reshape our being. I am interested in the “CRISPR” tool, which allows to “cut and paste” different genes’ segments. Blurring the boundary between art and science, I worked with a sample of my own saliva, which I had analyzed in order to get my full genetic sequencing. I explore the possibilities offered by this autoreferential investigation, as a spin-off of my artistic quest, this time oriented to user interaction, and manipulation. Systematizing my own genetic data, I conceive my own organism as another platform for information and manipulation, while exploring the self-portrait in its most intimate dimension. In this way, I reflect on how a simple set of letters can condense all the information necessary to construct my identity, conceiving the self as pure information, which can therefore be constructed and modified with simple data variations and misplacements.
“Amateur Gods” is an artistic object, which encompasses the main concepts of my artistic practice in a playful manner. I pose the question of the self-construction of the SELF, opening debates on the body and human identity, making comments on genetics, technology, and society. In an autoreferential investigation, and outlining a reflection on the media exposure – and overexposure – that overwhelms us today, I hereby seek to rethink our essence and its haphazardness, delving into what is it that ensures our uniqueness in the midst of a plurality of existences.
Twenty-three pieces
A synthesized version of the genetic information of each one of my twenty-three pairs of chromosomes is engraved on a different plexiglass piece. “Amateur Gods” is thus constituted by twenty-three components representing my most intimate self. The user is invited to arrange and rearrange the elements containing my information according to his own context-specific interest. The piece, manipulated by the spectator, unfolds and shifts position, continually proposing new layouts and, therefore, a new total form. I propose an open morphology subject to the spectator’s desire, who plays the part of the scientist and Amateur God, constructing new versatile, mutant, and dynamic imaginaries of the body and the self.
2023
Edition of 23 (un-numbered)
Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist
Artist’s genome
Engraved plexiglass
Variable dimensions