Bloodlines: Mapping Inheritance

About

Neil Groom’s work is inspired by the aesthetics of historic and contemporary scientific diagrams. The exhibition charts his exploration of the genetic pathways of our past, and the molecular architecture which power all living things and significantly determine our own natures.

Groom explains “This body of work for me began as a study of the structure of human anatomy and became more focused on the early molecular structures in our genetic past. It was my own patchy genetic history that I was initially charting, and considering what hidden historical traumas I may have inherited from my biological past that were unduly influencing my life. I was particularly drawn to the two basic processes in genetics that drive evolution forward - transcription and translation - as it mirrored my own creative progression. In my work, I transcribe from scientific or hand-drawn imagery and in the process of repetition or translation, changes and mutations are naturally made that become embedded in the fabric of the work. Printmaking is particularly susceptible to mutation and the vagaries of the human hand. As multiples, it is expected that they are identical but there are many variables occurring in the process that undermine exactitude and I exploited that.”