Catherine Wagner

-86 Degree Freezers (Twelve Areas of Concern and Crisis), 1995

12 panel typology, gelatin silver prints 24 x 20 in., each of 12 panels,
60 x 48 in. overall (detail)
Courtesy of JGS, Inc. and Jack Shainman

When I began reading about the Human Genome Project, I was struck by the intent to determine a ìgenetic blueprint,î first by mapping chromosomes and then by sequencing the entire gene structure of the human race. This project has gathered some of the most powerful minds in science to act as modern cartographers for our future. I am interested in what impact the changes that emerge from contemporary scientific research will have in our culture socially, spiritually, and physically. In my work I try to ask the kind of questions posed by philosophers, artists, ethicists, architects, and social scientists. All of these questions revolve around two central ideas: Who are we? and Who will we become?

Twelve Areas of Concern and Crisis is a collection of conceptual still lifes of evidence found in ñ86-degree freezers containing the archival samples of Alcoholism, Alzheimerís, Bipolar Disorder, Breast Cancer, DNA Synthesis, HIV, and other research from the Human Genome Project to formulate the -86 Degree Freezers typology. This freezer typology confronts the new millennium. It forces us to ask how, in the future, we will construct our individual and cultural identities.