Christine Davis

ACGT, 1998, 1999

etched steel and thread
67 x 31 1/2 in., each of 2 pieces
Courtesy of Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto

My initial exposure and access to the genetic code grew out of discussions with my brother, who is a genetic researcher. At the time we were both reading Chaos Theory. My work has often explored different historical scientific models; previously I had been working on the idea of the automaton. The genetic code seemed to be a radical shift from mechanics to communication, from how the body ìworksî (blood and guts) to how it ìmeansî (blocks of letters). The idea of genetics as a universal language of life was something I found quite menacing. For ACGT (1998) I focused on the relationship between genetics and information theory, how the organizing and dissemination of genetic material can inform its use and, ultimately, how the body is conceived as information to be programmed and deciphered. What particularly caught my attention was the relationship between something that looks like a tangle of spaghetti through the microscope and the orderly string of code available on the Internet. I decided to work through this linear and seamless string of information in a very concrete, archaic, and messy wayñwith needle and threadñintroducing a bit of Frankenstein, I suppose.