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11c_AristotelianProteins_MatingPheromone

The Building Blocks of Life, 2009

Series of three objects; all painted steel

Blue Mating Pheromone; 12” x 10” x 8” (30 cm x 25 cm x 20 cm)

The Mating Pheromone is a chemical signaling molecule that, under conditions of starvation, triggers mating behavior in certain unicellular organisms.

Proteins, the building blocks of all life on earth, are a link between the worlds of quantum physics and biology. Aesthetically, I find proteins to lie between the constructive pole of simple mathematical laws and the organic pole of more complex world of shapes. Three small proteins are represented as mitered cut sculptures painted in stark primary colors. The constellation of those proteins, one from an unicellular organism, one from a plant, and one from an animal, is reminiscent of a mathematical basis, a system of primary elements from which everything else can be built.