Blue DNA #1205L - #1201R, from the series Blue DNA
each: 12 × 8 in. (30.5 × 20.3 cm)
This object was selected for the collection as part of an annual student-led collecting initiative undertaken by the 2022-2023 Block Museum Student Associates (BMSA), an interdisciplinary group of Northwestern undergraduates.
Mayan Alvarado-Goldberg ’24, Neuroscience
Solome Bezuneh ’24, Communication Studies
Carolina Carret ’23, Legal Studies
Vitoria Monteiro de Carvalho Faria ’23, Art History and Economics
Karan Gowda ’21, Biological Sciences and Global Health Studies
Chayda Harding ’22, History
Zeki Hirsch ’24, Art History
Hyohee Kim ’22, Learning Sciences and Asian American Studies
Katy Kim ’23, Art History and Political Science
Nozizwe Msipa ’24, Communication Studies
Margeaux Rocco ’23, Economics
Bengi Rwabuhemba ’23, Anthropology
Bobby Yalam ‘24, Comparative Literary Studies
Hank Yang ‘24, Journalism and Political Science< /p>
This work is from a project titled My DNA by artist and biochemist Michael Koerner and was selected to join The Block’s collection by the 2021–22 Block Museum Student Associates. Koerner has said that it is the only project he will continue working on until he dies. To make these images, Koerner applied chemicals to metal plates prepared with other chemical solutions to cause reactions that create colors and shapes. This unpredictable process parallels Koerner’s lack of control over his own genetics, permanently altered by his mother’s exposure to gamma radiation during the 1945 bombing of Nagasaki, Japan.< i>Blue DNA diptych#1205L - #1201R consists of lines of circles that look like a winding double-helix of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), the building block of genetic information. These works consider the lasting effects of nuclear war both within an individual’s body and across multiple generations.
Read more about the selection process in Stories from the Block.
