Science of Eugenics
A Mixed media Installation
The Installation Space at School 33 Art Center Baltimore/USA, 1993
The book “Science of Eugenics” was first published in 1904 and by 1922, 250,000copies had already been printed. The book talks about the improvement of ‘the human race’ by methods of selective sex and reproduction.
I thought about people like my grandmother in Japan who adopted a child, my father, just before the First World War. He was not healthy and it was not an easy time to raise this child whose health continued to fail almost until the outbreak of the World War II. Because of unconditional love of my grandparents, my father recovered and lived until 95 years old.
My mother- in- law came to my mind also. She had to watch her newly married husband leave to fight the Japanese in the Pacific in the WW II. She delivered a child while he was away fighting.
Despite adverse circumstances, life continues as the uncontrollably fragrant natural power of apples in their honeymoon bed changing the air of the room where we find ourselves surrounded by the invisibility of life’s force.
Materials: old photographs of American and Japanese families, hand sewn fabric, copper rings, cast plaster, copy of a book ‘Science of Eugenics’ and fresh apples.
