Bioart installation: Ark

2022 New York

Ark
Material: Steel pipe, wood, glass, PVC plastic.
Lening Hou, 2022

 This work has two parts, the block above contains a pig's heart. Around the preserved pig heart is the bedding for culturing insects. The transparent plastic tube leads to the square space below, and the dead bodies of the insects will gather into the hollow heart-shaped vessel. Visually, culturally, and technologically, worms are a resilient and genetically easy-to-edit species. Because of this, I chose to use bugs as a proxy for my “Gene slave.” The natural pig heart above represents the gene responsible for the differentiation of heart tissue for mammals. The gene will be inserted into the insect’s genome but remain silenced. The heart below represents the mission and meaning of the “Gene Slaves,” who use their lives and bodies to help other genes continue to exist.

生命持续的过程也是对环境压力做出反抗的过程


所谓进化就是在黑暗中找到一条可以走下去的路

An old Chinese is saying, 天地不仁以万物为刍狗. This sentence can be understood as “nature is cruel, and all life is insignificant in front of natural selection.” It can also be understood as “all life is equal, and we all face the same cruel natural selection.” In natural selection, some creatures have evolved intelligence for better survival, while others have evolved bodies that are more adaptable to changing environments. In the Bible, Noah built the ark according to God's instructions, allowing many species to be preserved after the big flood. In modern times, each country has a gene bank, and some gene banks are built underground to keep genes from disasters. Because of the preservation of genes, it is possible for humans to revive extinct species after a significant change. According to the book “The Selfish Gene,” all living things are genetic machines, and our physical existence and the reproductive process are nothing more than the means for the gene to continue to exist. Inspired by this idea, I think that in the future, we won’t need physical arks or gene banks to preserve genes. I believe humans are perfectly capable of inventing
a “Gene Slave” animal. With something like CRISPR, or any other means of gene editing now or in the future, we can implant the genes we need into the generative cell of the target species and silence it. The target species should be creatures that can exist within very cruel natural environments, such as water bears, velvet worms, horseshoe crabs, etc. Those creatures are more likely to survive drastic changes in air pressure, changes in temperature, bacterial toxins, and chemical and physical pollution. If doomsday comes, we human beings have no time to take care of the rest. We can release our edited “Gene Slaves.” After the environment recovers, we can recycle these species, and resurrect the extinct species that we need, like crops. This is a combination of human technology and natural evolution, a combination of wisdom and vitality.

Working Process