2001-04-20 until 2001-05-26
Walker's Point Center for the Arts
Milwaukee, WI, USA United States of America

Dr. Hunter O'Reilly (now known as Hunter Cole), an artist and geneticist, reinterprets science as art in Radioactive Biohazard. View a laboratory bench installation displaying actual products of scientific experiments such as DNA visualized with UV light, preserved laboratory animals, x-rays and vials used to store radioactivity. Using found objects in art takes on a new meaning when those found objects are radioactive and biohazardous waste from a molecular biology laboratory. View digital art of actual cells and embryos arranged by Dr. O'Reilly, and enhanced with neon by Electric Eye Neon. View Hunter's oil paintings confronting topics such as human cloning.

Dr. Hunter O'Reilly obtained a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and graduated cum laude from the University of California, Berkeley. Contemporaries such as Damien Hirst and Eduardo Kac have provided inspiration for her project Radioactive Biohazard.

Biotechnology will be a part of our daily lives in this millennium. From the genetically engineered foods we eat to the miracle cures through gene therapy, biotechnology will be as significant to this century as mechanization was to the last. Yet biotechnology bewilders and frightens a large portion of the population. This exhibit will present the promise and horror of genetics and biotechnology on a visceral level, cutting through the technical jargon, and dramatizing biotechnology, leading to an intuitive understanding. This exhibit will focus on questions such as What does it mean to be human, in light of cloning, eugenics, prenatal genetic counseling and mutantsNULL Dr. O'Reilly sees human cloning as an opportunity for mankind rather than a horror. Dr. O'Reilly supports stem-cell research which has the potential to use fetal cells to grow new organs. Find out the facts and make up your own mind. Experience Radioactive Biohazard.

Dr. O'Reilly received a grant from the Puffin Foundation for the creation of Radioactive Biohazard.

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