Washington DC - Corcoran College of Art + Design’s Visiting Artists Program presents Molecular Invasion, a new experimental exhibition by the artist/activist collective Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) and Beatriz da Costa with Botanical Consultant Claire Pentecost beginning October 25. For the past five years CAE’s work has focused on biotechnology and the new forms of representation that continue to emerge from this vast field. As tactical media artists, the group has completed major projects examining various aspects of the biotech revolution in theatrical form that invite public participation. The Corcoran exhibition includes two related parts. The first part includes photodocumentation, CD-ROMs, and ephemera from previous CAE projects. The second part, Molecular Invasion, is a live public experiment in the gallery where the collective will attempt to reverse engineer genetically modified cash crops.
CAE’s previous biotech projects help to provide a context for their live experiment at the Corcoran. For example, the large-scale performance Flesh Machine (1997-98), which highlighted eugenics in the discourse and practice of current human reproduction technologies, featured the actual genetic screening of audience members and the diary of a couple going through in-vitro fertilization. The performance Society for Reproductive Anachronisms (1999) engaged the audience in dialogue about the danger of medical intervention in reproduction. In Cult of the New Eve (2000), CAE used the apocalyptic language of an imaginary cult to explore rhetoric surrounding recent genomic developments. For all of their projects, CAE enlists the aid of scientific specialists in the given fields under scrutiny. Often, they situate functioning labs on-site to bring people into contact with processes they would otherwise never come into contact with. All of this has the effect of demystifying the scientific process and contributing to an informed, critical discourse on biotechnology.
For the Molecular Invasion project, CAE will grow Monsanto RoundUp Ready cash crops (canola, soy, and corn) in experimental and control groups in the gallery for the duration of the exhibition. According to CAE, RoundUp ready crops have already become a super-pest in North America and they continually threaten to contaminate agricultural biodiversity around the world as their sales and distribution increases. CAE’s project provides a model for amateur molecular intervention through the application of a simple pyridoxal compound on the experimental group of plants. If successful, the compound will essentially reverse engineer the genetic modifications made to the plants, thereby making them vulnerable to the crippling effects of RoundUp herbicide. CAE will also produce a CD-ROM and other materials that explain the Molecular Invasion project in detail with the goal of raising public awareness of the dangers and implications of the production and deployment of transgenic crops. Students from the Corcoran’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program will assist the artists at every stage of the project and will hold performative hours during the exhibition in order to maintain the experiment and dialogue with the public. This project is partially funded by Creative Capital.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) is a collective of five artists of various specializations (book art, performance, computer, film, video, photography and critical theory) dedicated to exploring the intersections of art, technology, radical politics, and critical theory. CAE's critically-engaged performances draw inspiration from various historical manifestations of resistance performance such as Radical American Theatre, Berlin Dada, Guerrilla Art Action Group and the Situationists.
CAE has published four books on culture and society in the age of electronic media including Electronic Civil Disobedience and Other Unpopular Ideas, Digital Resistance: Explorations in Tactical Media, and the recently published The Molecular Invasion.
Critical Art Ensemble has performed and lectured internationally at such festivals and institutions as Documenta X, Kassel; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; the Museum of Photography, Antwerp; The New Museum, New York and The Kitchen, New York. Their work is included in the collections of several institutions such as The Whitney Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Tate Gallery, London.
Beatriz da Costa is a machine artist whose research and artistic practice is engaged in the use of robotic behavior. Her most recent project, Cello, consists of an automated interactive acoustic instrument that varies its behavior depending on the presence and position of visitors in the space. She is currently collaborating with Critical Art Ensemble on the GenTerra and Contestational Biology projects, and on developing Tactical Gizmology workshops. She has just completed an appointment as an Associate Researcher at The Studio for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University, and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at State University of New York at Buffalo.
Claire Pentecost is Assistant Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she teaches photography, drawing, critical theory and interdisciplinary seminars. She also has extensive experience as a visiting artist and lecturer in many other schools and institutions. She has exhibited her photographs and sculptural installations in the U.S., Europe and South America. Her background is in painting but she engages a variety of media to interrogate the imaginative and institutional structures that mediate our relations with the natural world. Her most recent work investigates the corporate control of almost every facet of our food system. She has worked as an Exhibits Specialist for the Bronx Zoo and for three years was co-organizer/curator of Four Walls, a non-profit forum for artist-initiated projects in Brooklyn. In addition to her work in the visual arts, she has published fiction and art criticism and produced interviews and reviews for radio.
LECTURES AND EVENTS
Monday, October 21
Public Slide Lecture: Tactical Media, 3 pm
Frances and Armand Hammer Auditorium
500 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006
202.639.1801
Thursday, October 24
Gallery Talk: Explorations in Art and Biology, 6 pm
Molecular Invasion Opening Reception and Book Launch, 7 - 9 pm
The Hemicycle Gallery
Exhibition Center of the Corcoran College of Art + Design
500 17th Street NW
Washington DC 20006
202.639.1801
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CONTACT:
Kristin Guiter
Manager of Media Relations
(202) 639-1867,
kguiter@corcoran.org
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