Suspect Inversion Center (SIC) serves as an open working laboratory where, witnessed by visitors to the exhibition, the artist and collaborators create master copies of historical DNA courtroom images from the 1995 OJ Simpson murder trial: live, on-site, using the artist’s own DNA. The installation consists of semi circular lab tables and shelves containing all the necessary equipment to perform the activities of the Suspect Inversion Center. Vanouse and collaborators continuously perform the work during daily gallery operations. When the work is complete and the original DNA image has been reasonably accurately reproduced, the “reverse-engineered” copy and the original will be displayed side by side, along with the full chemical “recipes” used to create the images. SIC invites the audience to observe each step of the laboratory process and interact with the experimenters.
What is most conceptually interesting about the images that will be produced through Suspect Inversion Center is that the artist is not simply making his DNA look like the original suspect DNA, but is using his own DNA to recreate an entire historical DNA document by scrutinizing every component of the authoritative DNA artifact.
The Committee to Nuke Elysium 