Picturing DNA
An Interview with Dui Seid

[Due Seid 's art reflects his experiences in the search for pscyhological, genetic and theological meaning in an increasingly smaller world. He is discussing his works "Gene Pool," and his Chinese Ancestor painting as representative of his approach to art, and science]

Q: Could you say something about your Chinese-American background in Mississippi?

Seid: Well, unbeknownst to most Americans, there is a large Chinese community in the delta of Mississippi. My father moved there because it was easier for Chinese to get citizenship if you owned a business. We left after I was born in '45, because Mississippi did not permit Asian children to go to school. There had been an incident in Southern California after the war where Chinese students were harassed. These Chinese students were thought of as Japanese. So rather than protect the Asian students, Mississippi victimized us. So we moved. We went first to Seattle, until around age six, I believe. And then we moved to Southern California, to central LA. I enjoyed that a lot. And then we moved to New York when I was thirteen.

Q: Did you ever study science specifically?

Seid: No. I went to Cooper Union where I first was an architecture major, so therefore I had to take science and physics. Also, I had to think structurally. That might have affected me in the manner in which I wasn't afraid of science. I got to understand about unity in terms of science. And I feel that my interest in science always related to and affected my art, because art, in many ways, is seeking a personal truth. And I felt that science was also seeking a truth, an absolute physical truth-or, let's say, laws. I felt that there was an affinity between the two-they were not the antithesis to each other that often people in the arts assume.

Q: And the Human Genome Project, how did that come into your world?

Seid: I was interested in concepts of fate or destination. I was questioning how much we were predetermined or predisposed, and therefore, I was interested in DNA. I contacted [the scientific laboratory at] Cold Spring Harbor, and they had a program for science teachers and professors and they permitted me to join the summer course. I would think '78 or '79. So I worked in the lab with E. Coli. It was just that summer. I did not know how it would affect my art. Later I was interested in DNA, as to whether it had anything to do with a predisposition to disease. I had questions about the spiritual life of individuals in relationship to DNA.

Q: Could you talk about what you mean by that?

Seid: Well, coming from an Asian background, where fate or karma is just sort of accepted-, fate and predisposition could have a spiritual component. In Eastern religions, you have karma that you are born with. And therefore, that dictates the course of your life. You have to work with it. It's a series of justices, or a cause and effect. So therefore, I had certain questions as to whether or not DNA, in determining the life cycle and development of an organism, had anything to do with karma. I did not separate the philosophical questions that I had about DNA and science from a spiritual aspect.

Q: Did you find that your laboratory studies enriched your understanding of what I will call a metaphor of karma?

Seid: Well, I don't think it's something that can be emphatically, or absolutely, answered. I do not believe at this point, the more that I have looked at it, that an individual, through his DNA, is totally indelibly, concretely determined. I believe that we are born with certain characteristics-whether [they be] talents or illnesses or abilities-which affect the way that we interact with the exterior, which greatly determines whether or not we succeed. I believe that experiences in one's life do make an impact on an organism or an individual and that these learned responses do affect how we navigate our lives. Therefore, our lives are not totally absolutely predetermined. Whereas karma is very much more-determined. I think that one has free will as well.

Q: Could you discuss your ancestor portrait?

Seid: I felt that one's DNA is a portrait of one's ancestry and a possibility of one's descendants, depending on in the future who one marries or joins with. But at least it reflects on future descendants. But one's DNA is absolutely a portrait of one's past, one's ancestors. Asians often have ancestor portraits, where they have an altar and where they place offerings and pay respect to these portraits and to their ancestors. So I decided to make a piece that had test tubes and some of my blood, and have a digital image of my DNA, with digitized images of my parents. For me, these were ancestor portraits. Although I also wanted them to look very medical and to look as if one were looking-you know, when you have an X-ray image, you put it on one of those light boxes.

Q: After you did the ancestor portrait, has DNA or the genome project or related ideas or imagery played any part in your subsequent work?

Seid: I would think that I'm still interested in the DNA. Right now, I'm thinking a lot about the brain and consciousness. And then reality, because really, consciousness is perception. Anything that has anything to do with the body-and brains are a part of the body-relates to DNA. The other piece that I wanted to allude to or have the feeling of watery falls. And they are fiberglass protrusions that reflect a DNA bar code on the wall. And there were four of them. One was a translation of my DNA code, and then of my three siblings. And that piece was called "Off/Spring." That was a jumping-off point.

Q: Would you call the ancestor portrait a piece of sculpture or an installation?

Seid: Well, there are three light boxes. They are sculpture, but because they exude light in a darkened room, it's environmental. So I guess it's an installation.

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Picturing DNA by Bettyann Holtzmann Kevles & Marilyn Nissenson
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