The implications of biometrics collecting have prompted ethical debates about the invasion of individuals’ privacy and the limits of state control on society, especially in liberal democracies. Facilitated access to data concerning unique bioidentities increases people’s vulnerability to the potential misuse of personal information and misappropriation leading to human rights violations and social justice issues, in particular when the conditions of storage and sharing are not made entirely transparent and governmental entities or other agencies may not be systematically made accountable for the safekeeping of such data. DNA collecting, fingerprinting, as well as iris, voice, and facial recognition are all part of a modern arsenal of human identification technologies to which we have all been subjected in our daily lives, often without choice, explicit consent, or a clear understanding of our ownership rights. The three artists who are part of this online exhibition use visual biodata to create works of art whose aesthetics is unquestionable. But beyond the stunning images and sophisticated techniques used to produce the artworks, the three series featured here also trigger a slew of interrogations about the intersection of bioidentification, regulations, equality, and the law.
Through their works on the iris, fingerprints, and chest X-rays (respectively), Esther Shalev-Gerz (In Visible), Judith Braun (Fingerprint Circles), and Kasia Ozga (The Internal Frontier) foster awareness about the omnipresence and multiple scales of personal data gathering in today’s world and mobilize our thinking about the ramifications of such practices for our bodily integrity, self-determination, autonomy and agency as human beings, and more generally for the principle of personhood, which legal scholars have long studied. While technology changes rapidly, constantly presenting societies with new possibilities and challenges to adapt to, the law may be slower to respond. This is where art can function as a conduit, offering different interpretations of current realities and ideating agendas faster than courts, tribunals, ethical boards, or constitutional assemblies can. Artists are thus key actors in the reflection on the ethics of the increased reliance on biodata and the way their collection and archival are legitimized, especially in a digital environment where massive amounts of data can be widely distributed (or hacked) in an instant.
—Hélène B. Ducros for EuropeNow
IN VISIBLE by Esther Shalev-Gerz
The In Visible series consists of 3D-generated images with natural pigments on archival paper. It invites the viewer to an immersive, reflexive and poetic journey into the deepest layers of visibility. In her encounter with SICPA (the Swiss company that commissioned the work), the artist Esther Shalev-Gerz recognizes objects of research and fascinating innovations in echo of her own fields of investigation and creation. Inspired by the passionate will to discover the smallest state of matter through the newest technologies of ultra-microscopy and the contemporary necessity for trust through the development of traceability and biometry technologies, In Visible proposes an exploration into the smallest characteristics of what describes an identity and a reflexive look at the visual unique characteristics of an iris. Representing the quintessence of biometry at a quasi-iconic level, the iris, impossible to capture photographically in its pure form, is the physical archive that bears the traces of the unique identity of a person. This minute seductive and mysterious interface is also the threshold between a reality perceived and one imagined. Through a dramatic change of scale, unique large-format irises, constructed ex-nihilo in 3D by the artist, make visible a color, architecture, and code as unique as individuals. Up close, the spectator can discover the uniqueness of each iris and its code.
Esther Shalev-Gerz was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, and is now based in Paris, France. She graduated from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. She received support from, among others, the DAAD, Berlin in 1990, IASPIS Stockholm in 2002, The Wolfsonian, FIU, Miami, the QoG Institute, Göteborg University, Sweden, and from the Swedish Research Council. She investigates the construction of memory, history, the natural world, democracy, and cultural identities and challenges the notion and practice of portraiture, considering how its qualities may contribute to contemporary discourse about the politics of representation. She was a professor at Valand Art School, Göteborg University Sweden (2003-2015). Her work has been exhibited internationally in, among other places, San Francisco, Paris, Berlin, London, Stockholm, Vancouver, Finland, Geneva, Guangzhou, and New York. Significant retrospective exhibitions were presented at the Serlachius Museum, Mänttä, Finland (2017), Wasserman Projects, Detroit (2016), the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne (2012), and the Jeu de Paume, Paris (2010). She created permanent projects in public spaces in Hamburg, Galilee, Stockholm, Knislinge, Geneva, Glasgow, and Vancouver. Her work can also be found in major international public and private collections, and more than 25 monographs have been published about her work.
FINGERPRINT CIRCLES by Judith Braun
“My fingerprint drawings started by an accident. It happened in 2009, as I was looking for ways to enlarge my small symmetrical pencil drawings to fill a large wall at Artists Space, in New York City. In the messy process of taping charcoal to long sticks to extend my reach, I noticed some fingerprints on the wall and how volumetric they appeared. It was a eureka moment, and I thought I could create the whole wall drawing with just my fingers dipped in charcoal and my body as a drawing tool. So, we set up a scaffold and I did my first 12-foot by 30-foot, Fingering. The title refers to both the drawing process and the playing of musical instruments, which the patterns reminded me of. Since then, I have done dozens of walls, and also small works on paper, like this series of Fingerprint Circles, which isolate the qualities of the mark making. Similar to Japanese Sumi-e ink paintings, they are both intentional and spontaneous, in equal measure. Each fingerprint is done in one simple gesture, allowing the density to change naturally as the charcoal wears off my finger.”
Judith Braun is an artist based in upstate New York with a wide range of visual practices, from realistic paintings to wood works and videos. She is particularly interested in symmetry and carbon mediums, which she considers as the building blocks of life. These provide her limitations that trigger exploration of endless possibilities, which she calls freedom through discipline. Her work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Her papers are archived at the Fales Library, at New York University, in the Special Collection of Downtown New York Artists from 1980s-90s.
THE INTERNAL FRONTIER (I and II) by Kasia Ozga
The Internal Frontier I Series consists of nine images (each measuring 35.5 cm x 43cm), while the Internal Frontier II Series consists of twelve images (each measuring 43cm x 35.5 cm). The images are cut out of chest x-rays, and each piece is displayed in a separate light box. The work juxtaposes the chest x-rays of immigrants currently living in France with cut-out abstract imagery of plants and landmarks covering the physical border zone between France and Spain (Internal Frontier I), photographed by the artist, or cut-out images of various borders and conflict zones around the world (Internal Frontier II). Some of the latter images relate to the personal histories of the individuals who have donated their x-rays, whereas others involve imagery of borders obtained via internet search engines.
Non-EU immigrants to France seeking long-term residency permits are required to obtain the x-rays in order to get cleared for processing. Every day, the government asserts its right to peer into and catalogue the innermost parts of our bodies, in order to determine who gets to stay within France’s borders and who is unfit to remain. My works explore how our identities are formed as we pass through and reflect on the many borders, physical, as well as mental, that we have each crossed in the past and must cross on a daily basis. In the x-ray images, the physical site of transit is inscribed within the body, rather than something that we pass through, unharmed. The experience of passing from one area to another stays with the migrant and becomes part of how he or she experiences the world. The works’ ambiguity underscores the dual symbolism of the border as a barrier and as a springboard, simultaneously inhibiting and enabling interactions between individuals and select geographic locations.
Kasia Ozga is a Polish-French-American sculptor and installation artist most recently based in Greensboro, NC. She reuses, revalues, and reanimates mass-produced materials into singular artworks and inverts associations we make with different types of waste. Ozga is a former Kosciuszko Foundation Fellowship recipient, Harriet Hale Woolley grantee from the Fondation des Etats-Unis, Jerome Fellowship recipient at Franconia Sculpture Park, and Paul-Louis Weiller award recipient of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts. Her work has been exhibited globally, and she has taken part in residencies in Europe and North America (Shakers, Nekatoenea, Pépinières Européennes de Création, ACRE, KHN). Currently an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at UNCG, Ozga holds a PhD from the University of Paris 8, an M.F.A. from the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, and a B.F.A. from the SMFA at Tufts University, Boston. She has participated in 15+ solo shows, 60+ group shows, and has fulfilled 20+ public art commissions in Europe and North America.
Hélène B. Ducros is the editor of EuropeNow. She holds a Juris Doctor and PhD in human/cultural geography, both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has a wide array of research interests focused on heritage-making, placemaking, and the way people relate to the landscape and appropriate their lived space. She teaches geography and international studies.
All images with permission of artists.
Published on August 15, 2024.
