Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Digital collage 29x43in

Dominant mythologies of western art and science have gained and maintained their authority, in part, by effectively hiding the ideologies reproduced through their practice. It is often assumed that artistic and scientific success is based on the disinterested observation of inherent qualities, yet when we measure and when we draw, we define, and when doing so we are actively applying meaning. So called "ideal forms" are constructed and used to re-enforce socioeconomic boundaries. Attempts at mapping the flesh of humans to reveal supposed inherent qualities have a long and sordid history, the most notorious of these being the eugenics movement. Many of the methods and technologies supporting the eugenics movement have finally been "debunked" by mainstream scientists, yet the movement's core values live on. Concerns of racism, sexism, and mass genocide may seem remote at best in the confines of a scientist's lab or artist's studio, yet it is in these contexts that ideology is most effectively rejuvenated in the guise of discovering "human nature."