Suzanne Anker

Zoosemiotics (Primates), 1993

glass vessel, steel, water, hydrocal, and metallic pigment; 160 x 86 x 72 in.
Courtesy of Universal Concepts Unlimited

During the late eighties I had been working on a number of sculptural projects that relied on the transformation of ephemeral natural materials—nests, lily pads, volcanic ash-covered eggs—into the more permanent substance of bronze. Foundries are like laboratories; apparatus galore, furnaces reminiscent of alchemical chambers, they are places where transformation and reincarnation are made visible. As part of Fixed Gaze (1989), a sculptural installation, I included several kaleidoscopic lenses attached to vessels. The viewer was invited to look through the lens, which further replicated the images before him into a spectacular visual experience. The resulting photographs from this instrumentalized visionary process appeared to be microscopic in nature, circularly framed, and intimately revealing. I wondered what other natural forms are ephemeral, hidden, and function in a transformative, replicative way? I had discovered the iconography of chromosomes.