VISUAL ARTS PORTFOLIO
Phylogenetic School (2014)
Award Winner of the First Science and Art Fund (2014), organized by the "Dirección de Extensión de la Universidad de Concepción"
Phylogenetic School is an artwork based on part of Dr. Cristian B. Canales Aguirre's doctoral research, which explores the evolution and phylogeography of a group of commercially important fish: five species of sardines belonging to the genus Sprattus. His research traces the migration of an ancestral European species across time and geographical space, following its evolutionary diversification after reaching South America, and subsequently Australia and New Zealand.The work explores the intersection of morphology and molecular information, while questioning the relationship between individual variation and species identity. It brings together morphological features and mitochondrial DNA sequences used in the reconstruction of the phylogenetic relationships among the five species. Each fish was individually hand-modelled in ceramic, following an initial mould that established its essential morphological characteristics. This process evokes the dialogue between genetic determination and environmental plasticity: the interplay between inherited information and environmental influences through which an individual's phenotype takes shape.
Although sharing a common morphological foundation, each fish develops its own distinctive features.The five species are connected through a spiralling phylogenetic tree, forming a school of fish. This arrangement creates a conceptual and linguistic play in English between a biological school — a school of fish — and a school of thought: a phylogenetic school that brings scientific knowledge into a shared, three-dimensional form. The installation translates evolutionary relationships into a sculptural composition, inviting us to consider how individual differences, shared ancestry, genetic information and environmental conditions intertwine in the unfolding of life.
Inauguration at Pinacoteca UdeC
