Stefanie Adcock, assistant director of the UCLA ART|SCI Center at UCLA curated three installation photographs of Gestation, 1994, and The Predisposed, 1995, for the ART|SCI Center symposium and group exhibition: Body, Art and Disease November 5–8, 2008. The exhibition took place at the Bermont Gallery. Artists in the exhibition: Rebeca Méndez, Silvia Rigon, and Philip Beesley.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
My installation Gestation explores the tensions that are implicit in social contracts
between individuals and institutions, and how these ‘agreements’ form our identity.
Only a fine line separates nurture and control. I see the potato as a metaphor for the
human being for several reasons: one, the potato is the lowest common denominator of
vegetables; two, as a basic staple food, its consumption transcends social boundaries; three, the potato holds energy within, enough to power a radio; and four, its form
resembles that of an organ.
When I wrap the potato in latex, I ward off the germs, as would a surgeon when exposing the interior of a human body. I hold the object as I sew the protective pouch and I feel like I’m nurturing it, but at the same time I’m confining the object within this simulation of skin. When the potato hangs suspended from the thread, and with the passing of time, disturbances in the clinical begin to germinate. As the latex either melts with the potato skin as it rots within the pouch, or is stretched and punctured by the roots of
a growing potato, the latex sheath becomes an index of the often indistinguishable gradations between artifice and nature, decay and life.
WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION:
1. The Predisposed, 1994. Inkjet print, 41 Rosette Potatoes.
2. Gestation 008, 1994. Installation Photograph (Detail). Inkjet print, 30×20 inches.
3. Gestation 009, 1994. Installation Photograph (Detail). Inkjet print, 30×20 inches.
4. Gestation 013, 1994. Installation Photograph (Detail). Inkjet print, 30×20 inches.
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