Mutations

Featuring Larry Bamburg, Alisa Baremboym, Sascha Braunig, Dora Budor, Radames Juni Figueroa, Guan Xiao, Marguerite Humeau, Veit Laurent Kurz, Joanna Malinowska, Jumana Manna, Jon Rafman, and Max Hooper Schneider

Various locations on the High Line
New York
 

Presented by Friends of the High Line, High Line Art is pleased to announce Mutations, an open-air exhibition that explores the relationship between man and nature, looking at how the boundaries between the natural world and culture are defined, crossed, and obliterated. The exhibition is inspired by the High Line as a controlled environment that encapsulates, on the one hand, the modern dream of humans taming nature, and on the other, the promise of nature reclaiming its control. The exhibition asks: as technology becomes more invisible and genetic engineering more conceivable, how do the delineations between nature and culture shift and transform?

With new technologies of biological engineering emerging daily, spontaneous life and natural wonders lose their mystery, and our complex role as meddler and creator becomes more hotly debated. We encounter the relationship between technology and biology in a variety of contexts: from ones as beneficial as synthetic prosthesis; to the controversial topics of stem cell research and genetic modification; to science-fiction visions of artificial intelligence. The artists in Mutations explore the many facets of this relationship, wondering about augmented or collaged natural forms, the ways our own bodies are transformed by technological inventions, and the blurred boundaries between natural life and human intervention. The works featured in the exhibition crisscross the uncanny valley between the unnatural and the all too human and between the laughably futuristic and the bizarrely contemporary.

Support
Mutations is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Major support for High Line Art comes from Donald R. Mullen, Jr. and The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston. Additional funding is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. High Line Art is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council and from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.