Science and technology are our things here at Wired—I have a 1000-mL glass flask on my desk right now from last week's photo department prop give-away that I plan to take home and use to decant wine. So you'd think the most recently opened exhibit at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, BioTechnique, would be right up our alley.
But, unfortunately, the new show—described as a "visually rich assortment of organisms, semi-living objects, and life-support systems, shining light on the technologies that are changing the world"—is more scientist-friendly than general public-friendly.
The text descriptions are sprinkled with $5-words and concepts, and the cell phone audio tour did little to help explain the works on display. (The audio tour, in fact, only complicated things: It was like tuning into an interview where you didn't hear the question, didn't know who was speaking, and then had to check to make sure that you were actually listening to the right track, since most didn't relate to the piece they were tagged to.)
This doesn't mean the exhibit isn't worth a visit, however, because even if you can't decipher what it's all about, the spieces are quite beautiful and thought-provoking on their own.
One piece early in the exhibit is a freshwater fish tank created in the style of Takashi Amano. Aqua Forest Aquarium, by George and Steven Lo, is an Asian painting come to life. Beautifully landscaped, it emulates the dynamic nature of a riverbank with carefully arranged wood, sand, and rocks playing home to living plants and small fish.
In the same room is Philip Ross’ “living still life.” A direct contrast to Aqua Forest Aquarium, Ross’ work feels eerie and alien-like. Three central battery packs sit on rod-iron stands and feed wires to 18 groupings of glass cylinders. In each set, a cylinder topped with a crown of LED lights houses a small plant sitting in nutrient-infused water. Tubes connect the first cylinder to a second, water-filled container, and the third encases a count-down clock and a pump that forces air into the second chamber to help feed the plant in the first. An example of hydroponics, the display looks like something from The Matrix, a future, desolate world where living organisms are carefully grown in life-sustaining pods.
Of the nine works in BioTechnique, the most accessible and interesting piece is Brandon Ballengee’s display of tree frogs with abnormally developed limbs. Lined up in glass, Petri-like dishes are nine frog specimens, dyed so their skin is transparent and their bones are blue and red. The text explains that Ballengee is a scientist who studies frogs, toads, and salamanders because their overall welfare is indicative of the overall health of the environment. But it fails to answer the very question it begged (which is another overall downfall of the exhibit): do the six-legged frogs mean the state of the world is bad or really, really bad?
If you have an open mind when it comes to art, take a peak. And if you have a scientist-friend, definitely bring her along.
