Art from the science lab: It's weird, but to what effect?

March 14, 2007|Art review, Ken Johnson, Globe Staff

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Yet another movie could be based on the small, intricate fictive objects that Brian Burkhardt fabricates -- robotic (but nonfunctioning) butterflies engineered for surveillance and espionage. Large color photographs resembling film stills by Burkhardt's collaborator Tanit Sakakini show a curiously tense family scene with butterfly spies -- camouflaged by woodgrain wings -- unobtrusively clustered on the wood framing of a fireplace in the background.

Serving a more decorative function are Brian Knep's digital video projections of flat, cartoonish, cellular forms in continual slow motion. A circular projection on the floor adds a mildly amusing interactive dimension: The forms fade and then reappear when you wave your hand over them.

As for Steve Hollinger's small glass creations -- one resembling an artificial heart has blue ink heated by electric light flowing between chambers through thin tubes -- they are beautifully crafted, but their connection to the biotechnology theme is tangential.

There's no doubt that the subject matter of "It's Alive!" is important. The genetic alteration of plants and animals for all sorts of purposes will continue to evolve, as will technologies of biological warfare and bioterror, and the effects of such developments might not be known until it's too late. But as happens too frequently with science- and technology-themed shows, the art presented by "It's Alive!" only illustrates a topic that you can learn more about by regularly perusing the science section of any major metropolitan newspaper.

Ken Johnson can be reached at kejohnson@globe.com.