ARTISTS EXPLORE HUMANKIND'S NEXT FRONTIER:
THE GENETIC REVOLUTION
 
TITLE: Paradise Now: Picturing the Genetic Revolution
WHEN: September 9 to October 28, 2000
WHERE: Exit Art 548 Broadway, Between Prince St.& Spring St., SoHo, NYC 10012-3916
WHAT: Paradise Now is the first major exhibition to identify key work by artists who are examining the meaning and urgent implications of dramatic breakthroughs in genetic research, and is the centerpiece of a city wide program.

The artworks on view in Paradise Now are of the moment-that is, innovative in content or rendering--and include both seminal works that have become benchmarks in the field as well as new work being exhibited for the first time. Media encompasses installation and mixed-media works, interactive and on-line projects, photographs, painting and sculpture. Works address a number of major issues, including:

  • Race - The implications of genetic research confirming that humans of all races are 99.9 percent genetically the same.
  • Economics - Ownership of genes and whether they should be patented and sold to the highest bidder
  • Reproduction - Germ-line gene therapy and how it could be used to design babies and/or improve the health of human beings before they are born.
  • Privacy - DNA identification and who has access to the information
  • Health - How gene therapy and new technologies will be used to prevent and treat disease
  • Food Safety - Risks and benefits of genetically engineered food crops and animals
    		• Featured Works From the Exhibition

    Alexis Rockman
    The Farm (2000)
    Oil and acrylic on wood panel, 8' x 10'

     
    Paradise Now is divided into two sections:

    Works addressing research into the nature of the human genome.
    Works exploring the implications of biotechnology on animal and plant life.

    Highlights of the first section include:

    Imaginary school portraits by Bradley Rubenstein that depict children who stare at the viewer with the loyal, blank--and transplanted--eyes of Cocker Spaniels;
    An interactive "photo booth" where visitors can scan their own facial image into a computer and have it transformed into five different ethnic variations (created by photographer Nancy Burson and titled The Human Race Machine);
    Iņigo Manglano-Ovalle's twin cryogenic sperm banks color-coded pink and blue by the artist and stocked accordingly with sex-selected sperm samples.

    Among the highlights of the second half of Paradise Now:

    A seven-foot-tall marble sculpture of a mouse created by Bryan Crockett as an homage to man and to mouse--in this case the "Oncomouse" developed to aid cancer research;
    An oversized living portrait of sun bathers on a beach rendered in genetically engineered, photosensitive grass by the British team of Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey;
    The Farm (2000), a startling, large-scale canvas illustrating the farm of the future by Alexis Rockman;
    Genesis (1999), in which Eduardo Kac converts a passage from the Book of Genesis into DNA code and then applies that code to create a form of living bacteria. The metamorphosis is continued even further: as people all over the world connect to the piece via the Internet, their on-line "visits" activate a light box, which in turn spurs the growth of the bacteria. The bacteria is seen in real-time in the installation via computer
    monitor.

    		39 artists from around the world will be participating in Paradise Now:

    Heather Ackroyd & Dan Harvey
    Suzanne Anker
    Dennis Ashbaugh
    Aziz + Cucher
    Brandon Ballengée
    Christine Borland
    Nancy Burson
    Helen Chadwick
    Kevin Clarke
    Keith Cottingham
    Bryan Crockett
    Hans Danuser
    Christine Davis
    Mark Dion
    George Gessert
    Rebecca Howland
    Natalie Jeremijenko
    Ronald. Jones
    Eduardo. Kac
    David Kremers
    Jane Lackey
    Julian. LaVerdiere
    Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle
    Karl S. Mihail & Tran T. Kim-Trang
    Larry Miller
    Steve Miller
    Frank Moore
    Alexis Rockman
    ® ™ark
    Bradley Rubenstein
    Nicolas Rule
    Christy Rupp
    Gary Schneider
    Laura Stein
    Eva Sutton
    Catherine Wagner
    Carrie Mae Weems
    Gail Wight
    Janet Zweig

    		Panel Discussions in conjunction with the exhibition Paradise Now are co-sponsored by Gene Media Forum and Exit Art:

    "What Can We Expect?"
     Wednesday, September 20, 2000 7-9:15pm at Harold M. Proshansky Auditorium, The Graduate Center City University of New York 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street, limited seating, please call 212-826-1531 for tickets.

    "Picturing the Genetic Revolution"
    Saturday, October 14, 2000 2-4pm at Exit Art 548 Broadway between Prince and Spring Streets limited seating, please RSVP at 212-966-7745 x-21

    Citywide Program Concurrent with the exhibition:

    Three large-scale commercial billboards featuring newly commissioned artwork will be stationed in Lower Manhattan by the public art presenter, Creative Time;
    A series of public programs will be presented by an international center for information on genetic research, The Gene Media Forum of the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, in collaboration with Exit Art;
    A new public opinion poll on Americans' attitudes towards different aspects of genetic research will be undertaken by The Gene Media Forum in conjunction with the exhibition; · Roz Chast, Maira Kalman and other artists will design a series of humorous paper coffee cups that will be available at Exit Art during the exhibition period.

    ORGANIZERS: Marvin Heiferman and Carole Kismaric, Lookout

           

             

    A selection of scientific artifacts will be displayed alongside works of art to give the public a better grasp of the scientific research and its meaning, including:

    Dr. James D. Watson's 1953 painted metal and wire model of a DNA molecule
    A gene chip the size of a postage stamp;
    A sampling of a vast paper printout of the human genome;
    Pop-culture ephemera as science fiction and cartoon imagery.

     
    Exhibition Design: Constantin Boym and Boym Partners Inc.
    Video: A video by the Emmy Award-winning team Kathy Brew and Roberto Guerra be shown in part in the exhibition and distributed in its entirety to colleges, university galleries and museums across the U.S. and Internationally.

    Web site: www.geneart.org
    Sponsorship: The Bohen Foundation, Jerome Foundation, The Joy of Giving Something, Inc., Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and members of Exit Art
    Exit Art hours are Tuesday to Friday, 10AM - 6PM; Saturday, 11AM - 6PM
    Cafe Hours: Friday, 10AM - 6PM, Saturday 11AM - 6 p.m.
    The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday.
    The suggested contribution for admission is $2.00, which goes to support Exit Art's programs.

    For more information, please call 212-966-7745 or email info@exitart.org.