Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle

Banks in Pink and Blue, 1999

mixed mediums, liquid nitrogen, and human semen, dimensions variable (installation view)
Courtesy of Max Protetch gallery

A gender-selected cryogenic sperm bank, Banks in Pink and Blue consists of a number of distinct components and agreements integral to the creation of a sculpture intended to preserve the viability of donated or “lender” sperm samples in cryogenic suspension for an undetermined period of time. While each sample is understood to be the property of the lender, the work functions as a corporate entity and generates appropriate contractual agreements with individual donors regarding preservation, ownership, and use of samples, including agreements between donors and the institutions that preserve and publicly display these samples. The project involves the contributions of twenty-five to one hundred sperm lenders selected by the artist as well as the participation of medical ethicists, geneticists, private biotech companies, lawyers, and legal consultants. Banks in Pink and Blue brings together disparate concerns of aesthetics, genetics, law, and ethics, addressing such issues as the possible transfer of sample ownership from the lender to the corporation or to other individuals. This installation includes a pair of self-contained cryobanking systems, the portable repositories known as Dewar flasks used by genetic laboratories, and commercial sperm banks for the preservation and long-term storage of specimens in the medium of liquid nitrogen. One of the outer aluminum shells of these repositories is colored pink, and the other a light blue. Since the banks must be periodically replenished with liquid nitrogen, the installation also contains a large stainless steel tank, which is used to maintain the frozen semen specimens at -321°. The vessels and the samples they contain are displayed as sculpture in the gallery setting.

Each lender is provided with a kit containing cryogenic transport media and instructions for private semen collection. The sample is then shipped to the artist by overnight air service for centrifugal separation for gender selection of spermatozoa carrying the Y- or X-sex determinant chromosome. Each sample is then stored in the appropriate pink or blue cryobank. The project is investigating the possibility that the art work may have a predetermined lifespan of twenty years, which would allow for its exhibition at other venues at future dates.