Unnatural Science: An Exhibition Spring 2000-Spring 2001

by Laura Steward Heon (Essay by)

A massive installation in the newly built and widely acclaimed Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Unnatural Science fills 70,000 square feet of gallery space. This awe-inspiring exhibit is comprised of art created over the past 15 years that exploits scientific narratives and aesthetics, particularly those drawn from genetics. The fifteen works of sculpture, photography, collage and mixed media that make up the exhibition are exquisitely reproduced in this catalog, which features full-page color plates and comprehensive descriptions of each work along with biographies of the artists.Humorous and irreverent, though scientifically well-informed, these works owe much to the playful art of Marcel Duchamp in their use of science as a springboard for fantasy. The depictions of maple trees, taxidermy, human genetic material, chemical reactions, the food chain, and other scientifically based phenomena are both poetic and profound, beautiful and visionary. Drawn from various artists, dealers, collectors and museums from all over the world, the works in Unnatural Science hail a significant trend in contemporary art-one that not only demystifies, but poeticizes science.

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Laura Steward Heon is a contemporary art curator and arts leader known for her curatorial vision and thoughtful writing. She began her career at MASS MoCA in 1996 as an intern and quickly rose to assistant curator by 1998, following her studies at Harvard College and the Williams College/Clark Art Institute Graduate Program. Over the years, she curated numerous acclaimed exhibitions at MASS MoCA, including Yankee Remix, Game Show, Unnatural Science, and Billboard: Art on the Road, and coordinated major commissions such as Cai Guo-Qiang’s Inopportune and Ann Hamilton’s corpus, the latter earning an AICA prize for installation.
In 2005, Heon became executive director and curator of SITE Santa Fe, bringing her deep experience to one of the premier contemporary arts venues in the Southwest. Her work has featured influential international artists including Sophie Calle, Zoe Leonard, Huang Yong Ping, Kiki Smith, and Matthew Ritchie. She has also collaborated with major institutions such as the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and previously with SITE Santa Fe. Originally from Sherwood, Arkansas, she has contributed significantly to the contemporary art landscape while also teaching art history at Bennington College.