The Telomeric Cut
The Telomeric Cut departs from a series of electron micrographs in which Meres captures the process of cutting and regenerating hermaphroditic planarian flatworms. The outcome of a one-year experiment that entailed daily care and observation of planarians’ sexual and asexual regenerative patterns, the images abstract and magnify these immortal animals into otherworldly electron landscapes. Meres worked with electrical engineers at Columbia University to produce the images through a microscopic process that deploys electrons, instead of photons, as sources of information, thereby responding to flatworms’ inherent phobia of light.
The ensuing micrographs are rendered in 3D modelling software and materialized in pigment prints on metallic substrates and silk. Framed in polished steel boxes, the metallic prints evoke the authority of scientific display while the silk prints are mounted on biomorphic steel structures that allude to role-playing equipment. Departing from recent findings connecting flatworms’ immortality to the behavior of telomeres (caps at the end of DNA strands that protect genetic material from damage and prevent chromosomes from fusing), Meres’s telomeric cutting experiments work through the dissonant hopes and fears that the quest for the control of regeneration evokes.
Tentatus, 2018
Pigment print on silk, açaí berry, silicone rubber, polished steel, laboratory hardware
203.2 x 82.55 x 60.96 cm
Enchanted Bodies,, GAMeC, Bergamo, Italy (2018)
Enchanted Bodies, GAMeC, Bergamo, Italy (2018)
The Telomeric Cut, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil (2017)
The Telomeric Cut, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil (2017)
The Telomeric Cut, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil (2017)
The Telomeric Cut, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil (2017)
The Telomeric Cut, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil (2017)
The Telomeric Cut, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil (2017)
Tentata Genera, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print on silk, açaí berry, silicone rubber, polished steel, laboratory hardware
122 × 65 x 7.6 cm
Tentata Occulta, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print on silk, açaí berry, silicone rubber, polished steel, laboratory hardware
122 × 60 x 7.6 cm
Tentata Adventitium, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print on silk, açaí berry, silicone rubber, polished steel, laboratory hardware
122 × 65 x 7.6 cm
The Telomeric Cut - Tail Turns Into Mouth, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print, polished steel
172 × 81 cm
The Telomeric Cut - Ectopic Eyes, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print, polished steel
172 × 81 cm
The Telomeric Cut - Anterior Wound, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print, polished steel
96 × 70.5 cm
The Telomeric Cut - Cyclopic, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print, polished steel
172 × 81 cm
The Telomeric Cut - Tail on Tail, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print, polished steel
96 × 70.5 cm
Weave Weavers Weave, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print on silk, woven aluminum, polished steel
119 × 61 × 114 cm
Weavers Weave We, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print on silk, woven aluminum, polished steel
191 × 51 × 99 cm
Weave We Weavers, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print on silk, polyurethane, woven aluminum, polished steel
191 × 51 cm
Weave We Weavers II, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print on silk, polyurethane, woven aluminum, polished steel
158 × 38 cm
Enchanted Bodies, GAMeC, Bergamo, Italy (2018)