Yesterday I had dinner with Eduardo Kac (pronounced Katz), and inevitably we talked about his latest project, “Natural History of the Enigma.” New in a relative sense, since the project has been in development since 2003.
It is a series of “plantimals,” genetically modified animal-plant hybrids resulting from the introduction of proteins from Eduardo’s DNA into the DNA of a petunia, which, not coincidentally, generated the species “Edunia.”
The Weisman Art Museum acquired the work for its collection in the form of a small bag of seeds.
The flowers themselves are kept in a greenhouse at a University of Minnesota laboratory, but for how long is unclear.
The laboratory’s interest is experimental, rather than focused on preservation.
This raises interesting, unprecedented impasses for creation in Art/Science.
More on this and other subjects soon in Trópico.
For now: Natural History of the Enigma