The Concept of Conceptual Art:
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Figure 2. Detail ofThe Human Genome Projection. Photograph by Monika Lozinska-Lee
Second Installation
You Are Here: The Human Genome Projection, 2008 (Chicago)
Description: Several structures in a large room masquerade as the
centerpieces of a late-nineteenth-century traveling camival/sideshow of medical
oddities. In the middle Stands a kiosk constructed ffom old bam wood, including
a long table with an antique mannequin on it. The mannequin’s brain has been
mapped, with tags nailed to its head in order to indicate what that area of the
brain is dedicated to processing/knowing (e.g., “flight or fight,” “fear of death,”
“the name of that guy who was in that thing,” “Dönde estä la biblioteca” etc.).
On or near the table there is a test tube centrifuge with test tubes filled with
ashes, an x-ray viewer with x-rays of broken bones ffom abused children, a
small video screen (hidden inside a wooden box) scrolling through old-time
photos of medical curiosities and modern images of DNA, a meat grinder into
which the mannequin’s hospital gown/wedding dress is being fed, vials of black
and white powders, and mason jars with embalmed “fetal skeletons.” Nearby,
there is a booth with a curtain. When one opens the curtain and enters the booth,
a sensor is tripped so that Gregorian chants begin to play through hidden
Speakers. A light tums on inside an antique lighted microscope that sits on a
metal hospital table with a sign inviting viewers to look into the microscope to
see an actual sample of human DNA that has been fully mapped. The viewer can
operate the microscope, focusing the image and changing the intensity of the
bulb. Once the image comes into view, it is found to be a microdot that reads