The research I have been doing into my Y (Male) DNA has led me to understand that I'm part of Haplogroup R1b and Subclade R1b (DF27 and Z196). The only exact match I have been able to find after searching all databases is at the level of 20 out of a possible 111 markers. This means that mathematically there is every likelihood I and this other individual had a most recent common ancestor in the 13th century.
So here I am, adrift on my genetic iceberg. There's an obvious reason. Most people on earth don't put genetic DNA genealogy high on their agenda.
During the research into my DNA, I painted a couple of large ( 2 metres X 3 metres) white, abstract works on unstretched canvass using acrylic paint and water so the surface bulged and wrinkled becoming three dimensional to form reliefs. I decided to put letters and numbers corresponding to my own DNA on the canvasses. They seemed to describe a very long journey out of Africa, across continents and many thousands of years, punctuated by generations spent in refuges during the last Ice Age in Northern Europe.
I was working on a series of large close-up panning shots on video in black and white of the surface of several of the paintings that were in my last exhibition. When I looked at the footage it was as if I was looking at the DNA of the paintings themselves; what lay under the skin, the magnified images of the brushstrokes themselves and the texture of the canvass. I had the idea of projecting these rather spectral moving images onto the surface of the white paintings.
I re- recorded the projections onto the paintings from an acute camera angle so as to throw into relief the three-dimensional surface features of the paintings and create another visual layer. Finally I projected each of the two videos as loops onto the corresponding paintings. This whole process I realised was one of mutation. I'd taken elements of my DNA, mixed them with the DNA of my paintings to create my own Genetic Self-Portraits. The DNA Self-Portrait 1 below represents only an idea of the live experience which has been designed as part of an upcoming installation project.
