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Grinder p53 is a life-printing machine. It is a monument made to reprint life. Hammered into granite the sculpture portrays the entire genetic sequence of the human suicide gene p53. The gene is exposed in a completely reproducible way. With a genetical synthesizer the sequence can be read and encoded back into flesh.
As a work Grinder p53 appears contradictory. As a phallic stone it resembles a traditional monument. But it is an information carrier that could not be made before now, in the year 2000. The data imprinted in the stone is made feasible by the human race most advanced achievement: the mapping of the human gene. Its expression combines age-old craftsmanship with the most advanced knowledge (genetic engineering). The sculpture so comments both the traditional and the avant-garde.
Grinder p53 is a manifestation of how media have changed pre-digital art. Where traditional sculpture before made superficial depictions of the outer human silhouette, grinder p53 is an inner description of life. Rather than presenting superficial appearances, Grinder p53 makes it possible to completely produce -and re-produce- this specific piece of life. The genre of portrays is forever changed. The content goes beyond romantic nostalgia and comments on the new millenium of the Life-Sciences. At the same time the monument presents a sublime critique of New-Technologies. By presenting The New (genetic engineering) by The Old (stone carving), the work paradoxically use traditional techniques to transform our understanding of new technologies. Implicitly it also questions the ethics behind the rush for progress. How to explain life without (human) history? Ironically, imprinted in stone the naturally occurring human gene p53 will most likely survive the artificially modified p53-xxx of the next millennium.
(source: www.stenslie.net)
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