BFA Exhibit Raises Ethical Questions About Genetics

12/07/2010 

Sculptor and SUNY Cortland senior Tara A. Evans will give a gallery talk at her Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis exhibition, “Down to Science,” on Thursday, Dec. 9, at the third floor studio at the Cortland Corset Company Factory, 75 East Court St. Cortland.

Her presentation begins at 5 p.m.

The exhibition which opened on Nov. 19 is available for viewing upon request. For more information or to schedule a viewing, contact Evans at (315) 750-8348. Parking is available in the lot across the street.

Evans’ past artwork was exhibited in the “2009 Best of SUNY Art Student Exhibition Series” at the New York State University Plaza Gallery. Her wooden sculpture, which is called “Without Sound,” was displayed at the “Best of SUNY” exhibition as well as the “Art and Culture Series” at the Albany International Airport from Jan.-June 2010.

A previous piece of artwork by SUNY Cortland BFA student Tara A. Evans is titled “Without Sound.”

Her planned, interactive exhibition will combine science with sculpture in a way that presents the viewer with a choice: “What gene will he or she pass on?”

“The modern advancements in science and technology inform my conceptual ideas regarding designer DNA,” Evans said of the planned installation piece. “With 36 choices between medical and cosmetic genetic traits, I create a ‘control panel’ for gene manipulation.”

While referencing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, her sculpture suggests dangerous and far-reaching moral implications using mass-produced, luminous, blood-like forms suspended from the ceiling. The space offers individually wired toggle switches that represent each trait to be switched on or off by the viewer, alluding to the fantasy of perfection.