RAPID CITY, S.D. (March 25, 2013) – An MIT and Harvard Medical School research affiliate and world-renowned pioneer in the emerging field of bio-art, Joe Davis will reveal his newest installation, “Hidden Knowledge,” created in collaboration with Mines students, at 5 p.m. Friday, April 5, in the Apex Gallery on the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology campus.
A film screening of HEAVEN + EARTH + JOE DAVIS, a documentary by internationally acclaimed filmmaker Peter Saskowsky will follow the artist reception, accompanied by a Q&A with both men.
Escaping tidy descriptor or simple explanation, Davis’ art, like the laboratories from which it springs, emerges at the vanishing point between experience and experiment.
Ranging from placing a map of the Milky Way into the ear of a transgenic mouse (where the genes of one species are placed inside the cells of another) to transforming light information into sound in order to hear living cells, his artwork and research probes the fields of molecular biology, bioinformatics, sculpture and space art, using tools as diverse as centrifuges, radios, prosthetics and magnetic fields of genetic materials.
Davis’ newest installation proves to be just as unorthodox. Partnering with Mines students, he will stamp around 500 stones with the DNA sequence of the wild apple Malus sieversii – the first apple to ever exist. Until now, the wild apple’s DNA had never been sequenced, allowing Davis’ project to also serve as a test bed for next-generation nanopore DNA sequencing technology. After the exhibit ends, the stones will be transferred to the courtyard of Chemical and Biological Engineering/Chemistry building, a fitting tribute to the work unfolding within.
The School of Mines exhibit will serve as a prototype for a permanent, larger-scale installation at Harvard Medical School entitled “Shadow Garden,” which will be displayed in an atrium housing more than 180,000 rocks, 46,000 of which will be stamped.
Deborah Mitchell, director of the Apex Gallery, seizing the opportunity to explore the nexus of science and art, invited Joe Davis to the School of Mines to share his work. Mitchell is currently working on developing a visiting artist’s program to bring more such opportunities to campus.
A wild progenitor species of the domesticated apple, M. sieversii was initially dispersed via the Silk Road, a historic trade caravan route leading from Central Asia east to China and west to Europe. As trade declined over the last few centuries, this flow of apple germplasm slowed, ceasing completely in the 20th century as Central Asia became isolated for political reasons.
Though wild populations of the apple are scattered throughout a remote, mountainous region of the Tian Shan Mountains in Central Asia, until now the wild apple’s genome had never been sequenced – despite being a critical genetic resource for disease resistance, fruit quality and tree physiology in cultivated apples.
While Davis underscores the scientific importance of understanding the M. sieversii genome, he also delights in the profoundly poetic nature of the project. Ancestral to all domestic cultivars, these progenitor apples evoke legends of Eden, calling to a mind the Tree of Knowledge – apropos for the institutions of higher learning, Harvard and the School of Mines, in which the exhibits will be housed.
Davis’ initial foray into bio-art dates back to the mid-1980s, when the first work of transgenic art was created. The piece, entitled Microvenus, was comprised of a strand of DNA encoded with the symbol of the Germanic rune for life inserted into an E. coli bacterium. Microvenus was not only an echo of human origins, it defined a new artistic medium.
His art has not gone unnoticed. In 2012 he won the Golden Nica Prix at Ars Electronica Hybrid Art for his piece Bacterial Radio. His exhibits have appeared around the world, most recently in Saudi Arabia, the Bauhaus in Germany, Rome and Paris. And articles in current issues of both Discover and ARTnews reveal that Davis’ compelling and often controversial work has enraptured scientists and artists alike, including filmmaker Peter Saskowsky.
Released in 2010 to international critical acclaim, Saskowsky’s HEAVEN + EARTH + JOE DAVIS documents Davis’ drive to discover humanity’s place in the universe, tracing the achievements and sacrifices of his quest: a rebellious youth, near homelessness, losing his leg, abandonment by his wife and child and his tenacious pursuit of a position at MIT.
The film will be screened twice: once from 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, at the Dahl Art Center, a Q&A with Davis to follow, and again from 6-8 p.m. Friday, April 5, in room 204 in the Classroom Building on campus. Saskowsky will join Davis for a Q&A session following the film.
Tickets, which can be purchased at the door, for the Dahl showing are $5 for adults and $2 for students.
Saskowsky is the founder and director of Serious Motion Pictures, a script-to-screen production company that produces documentary and narrative films, corporate communications and media for foundations and philanthropies.
The week’s schedule includes:
Wednesday, April 3
• Film screening of HEAVEN + EARTH + JOE DAVIS, Q&A with Davis: 6 p.m., Dahl Art Center
Thursday, April 4
• Understanding Exohexahedra, public lecture by Davis: noon, SDSM&T Classroom Building, room 327
Friday, April 5
• Opening reception for Hidden Knowledge: 5 p.m., Apex Art Gallery
• Film screening of HEAVEN + EARTH + JOE DAVIS, Q&A with Saskowsky and Davis: 6 p.m., Classroom Building, room 204
More information on the Apex Gallery can be found at http://apexgallery.sdsmt.edu/.