Sonya is an American conceptual and digital artist who is best known for her computer- assisted interactive installations and web-based work. She attended many colleges, but her passion has been focused both art and technology. Her variety of interests began with the human figure in abstracted form in 1940 and in 1950 moved toward an abstract expressionist and watercolor. In the 1960's she experimented with bringing in a science aspect by incorporating scientific illustrations, graphs, and three dimensional abstract expressionist constructions. In the 1970's she began to use electronic media to start work on interdisciplinary and cultural studies. In the 1980's and 1990's her projects became large scale and very complex. They had very specific messages and were exhibited often in many stages.
"The Transgenic Bagel is a parody on the recombinant gene splicing theme. The genetic formula of a desired trait is engineered and impregnated into a bagel which serves as the transgenic (gene transfer) vehicle. The bagel physically resembles a plasmid, a circular DNA molecule which contains the genetic information. A section of this loop can be excised and another portion of the DNA inserted." This piece is well thought out and the more you look at it, the more of the parody you see. For example, the snakes intertwined in the tree are shaped like reproductive organs (penis and uterus) which contribute to irony of the situation because the organs are out there, yet the characters in the image seem to prefer the indirect method of reproduction (eating a bagel). It is interesting however that she really does do her research when it comes to the science aspect of her art. The bagel plasmid, for example, does include adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine in the way the are supposed to be placed. Also, mentioning Watson and Crick, the co-discoverers of DNA, helps the viewer identify what aspect of genetics she is attacking.
I am not a fan of Sonya's work mostly because I do not find it initially visually appealing. Her concept behind her work is what makes it interesting to me, but not the work itself. For example, this image is pixelated and the text is in all different colors that don't fit in to any color scheme. I also find it difficult to understand her work without a thorough explanation and background on the subject. I do, however, still admire the fact that she is poking fun at science because it is a very serious subject that doesn't always adhere to human reasoning.
No comments:
Post a Comment