A Code for Tulips

collage and drawing on vellum  2018  30”h, 22”w

The images used are the result of the first time the tulip genome was sequenced using Oxford Nanopore technology, thanks to a geneticist from Leiden, NL. The collaged  DNA sequences express the variegated petals that were the most desired during Tulipmania.  Three centuries later, scientists understood this variation in a tulip’s petals was the result of a virus that caused mutations to the tulip genome.  The prints are black text on a white background and vice versa to illustrate the binary aspect of a gene; it is either on or off.

• Diagrams
• Text