The Hothouse Archives

Abstract

The ICI Berlin in conjunction with the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science is pleased to announce an exhibition by visual artist and theorist Suzanne Anker. The Hothouse Archives brings together two groups of photographs that picture the blurring of boundaries between nature and culture. The first suite of pictures, &#8216;Coral Seed Bank&#8217; (2007) capture fragments of brain corals suspended in tanks located at the Mote Marine Laboratory at Summerland Key, Florida. The morphology of coral, similar to the convolutions in the brain, create vital connections between all parts of the organism. The vivid colors are a natural wonder, rendering this stationary carnivore as a masquerading plant. In the second suite of photographs, &#8216;Laboratory Life&#8217;  several layers of images are superimposed on top of one another in the form of a palimpsest. Images garnered from scientific laboratories form the technological base layer. An image of a transparent garden is then transferred as a top layer. The chance provoke questions concerning our enchantment with both nature and technology. Suzanne Anker (www.geneculture.org) has exhibited her work at the J. P. Getty Museum, the Kunsthaus Meran, the Phillips Collection, the Institute for Art and Urban Resources in NY among others. She has been a guest curator at the New York Academy of Sciences as well as the author of many texts concerning the implications of the bio-technological revolution on culture and society. She currently teaches at the School of Visual Arts in NYC, where she is Chair of the Fine Arts Department.Suzanne Anker, The Hothouse Archives, exhibition, ICI Berlin, 19 February 2009 <https://doi.org/10.25620/e090219