Mutation

In nature, when mutants arise out of genetic alterations, they are subject to natural selection. In other words, nature is the force that determines which mutants survive or perish. For Mutation, I printed a self-portrait and physically altered the print in various ways to create variants, or mutants. Here, the survival of the mutants was determined not by nature, but by a vote on social media. Each winning mutant had further copies made that were subjected to further alterations and further votes, ultimately leading to a final photograph carrying the accumulation of all surviving mutations.

The year 2020 for me has exposed our inability as a society to comprehend and trust the scientific process in the face of a global crisis. Mutation is a visual game of telephone that represents our distortions and appropriations of truths and facts.