Jean-Pierre Hébert: Study for DNA, Pale Hues

Artist(s):

• Jean-Pierre Hébert

Title:

Study for DNA, Pale Hues

Exhibition:

• SIGGRAPH 1999: technOasis

Creation Year:

1998

Medium:

Acrylic inks on four sheets of cream Pescia paper

Size:

30 x 22

Category:

• 2D & Wall-Hung

Keywords:

• abstract
• acrylic
• science

Artist Statement:

An evolving abstraction of the landscape within a cell as it prepares itself for division. Swarms of DNA strands uncoil as they are copied during chromosomes replication. The multiplicity of scales, the vast number of strands surging from the deep inner space of the cell into the forefront, the myriad spirals all suggest the complexity and the vastness of the underlying coded information. The fuzzy symmetries evoke the replications as life evolves. The self-similarities convey that what we see has happened before and knows how to happen again. Each panel illustrates one phase in the process.

The work is not a scientific illustration, and it does not attempt to illustrate or explain genetic processes in the cell. It means to provoke a meditation about the awesome nature and structures of life and of our efforts to understand it.