For those, like me, who are confused and maybe for this reason fascinated by the language of science, I revisited some of our vital parts.
Any view of the development of an organism gives rise to amazement and even admiration. I ask myself how such seemingly primitive eggs and pieces of tissue can so regularly become something so incredibly complex. The slow gradual evolution of our species and of the rest of our planet is in this way predictable and yet astonishing.
Here is where it crosses paths with the development of a ‘Print’ work; etching in particular, which unlike other forms of artistic expression, requires the artist to follow set instructions.
In return it allows infinite reproduction. Through the same repeated gestures perfected ever so slightly by time, printmakers create editions that are expected to look identical.
By glancing at a human’s embryonic state, at our basic instincts, at the way our mechanisms function over a lifetime, one could say that we too are close to the predictability of a print. However, even identical twins do not look or feel exactly the same. Paper is not the same, ink is not the same and the preparation is always new.
I find myself wondering what assembled us together. If there is a matrix that is inked and printed with new genetic make up every time a human is born. Might there be a very proliferant printer who continues to produce these unique yet comparable organisms? Thankfully my role at this moment is not to design organs or to assemble them together but to make art.
This Series titled ‘ C.C.- ray’ honours the internal organisation we are responsible for and depend on.
Costanza Chia is currently artist in residence at the Scuola Internationale di Grafica.
Exhibition curated by Déirdre Kelly
