Nicolas Rule
S. Anker
D. Ashbaugh
Aziz + Cucher
B. Ballengée
C. Borland
N. Burson
H. Chadwick
K. Clarke
K. Cottingham
B. Crockett
H. Danuser
C. Davis
M. Dion
G. Gessert
R. Howland
N. Jeremijenko
R. Jones
E. Kac
davidkremers
J. Lackey
J. LaVerdiere
I. Manglano-Ovalle
K. Mihail & T. Kim-Trang
L. Miller
S. Miller
F. Moore
A. Rockman
® ™ark
B. Rubenstein
N. Rule
C. Rupp
G. Schneider
L. Stein
E. Sutton
C. Wagner
C.M. Weems
G. Wight
J. Zweig
One Horse-Meadow Star, 1992
ink and pencil on Tru-Core,
47 x 95 in.
(detail)
What attracted me to genetic issues was the image of perfection that a thoroughbred racehorse presents to the world. Meticulous records track every thoroughbredís pedigree back more than twenty generations, making it possible to create a portrait of a horse with just the names of its predecessors. Metaphor is eliminated and an incredible level of detail is made available. The exponential function that structures pedigrees enables me to increase the scale of a piece beyond its physical dimensions: a perfect genealogical chart has no spatial boundaries; it could go on forever.
This drawing enumerates all the ancestors of the 1991 Eclipse Award champion, Meadow Star. Inbreeding in the pedigree is marked by red lines. Wherever a name reappears duplicated, a red line loops back to the first occurrence of the name. The more inbred the horse, the more red the whole image becomes.
Why does the notion of selective breeding raise far fewer ethical issues than the idea of directly manipulating genes?
