Genes at Play

Genes At Play came out of my conviction that Reality is both an ongoing mode of creation, maintenance, and renewal and at the same time an act of play, an insouciant gesture whose constantly changing meanings are just beyond us. Kids get it, though. They don’t waste time with flow charts. They play and celebrate everything, even in their complaints. So this is the first idea inspiring me, that play is at the heart of Creation.

The second idea comes from looking at microscopic images. Ordinary concrete reality breaks down into discrete shapes alive with intention: circles, ovals, squiggles all moving to their completion or enjoying their play. Maybe both. The painting is a reminder that even when we are most beset with heaviness and drudgery, the fundamental bits of Creation (genes, molecules, atoms) are fulfilling their destinies by being part of the dance. The dance is there, all around us and within us even if I can’t see it.

On another scale, we are often told that individuals are not responsible in some way; behaviour comes forth from the genetics of the individual. Let’s avoid a scrum, and say that this statement is provisionally true. However, it applies to everyone and everything, and so is useless as an attempt to project blame. We are all in the same boat.

Furthermore, the genes are part of a vast network that extends beyond organic life on the earth, since the constituents of genes came from molecules and atoms that have come to this earth in sunlight and meteor visits and other space detritus.

So not only our specific genes are at play. All is play. Everything is part of some cosmic dance, and I do not intend this thought to be a “wow, let’s keep smoking this stuff.”

We can see ourselves as victims or as a part of Nature, and through our humanity as part of an evolving earth. Since we can now set our sights astronomically and cosmologically on our galaxy and beyond, many artists have as well joined in this observation, but with a concurrent interest in viewing ourselves here on Earth while we are gazing at the Beyond. Artists like Lita Albuquerque and James Turrell are interested in studying how our technical ability to see vast distances has changed how we see ourselves. Ancient civilizations had similar interests but they did not have the technical means to go into Space or to view through the Hubble telescope the very far away.

The very far away macroscopically and the very far away microscopically within our own bodies. What a thought that they might be moving to the same music…

Ramon KubicekJune 25, 2020