Mitosis

Bronze, 1988

Private Collection

The double helix structure of the DNA molecule duplicates itself through the sub-divisional process of mitosis. Through mitosis, one parent cell splits into two identical daughter cells. This sculpture, Mitosis, of which there are permanently placed editions at both Casa di Dante in Florence, Italy and at the Scalia Law School of George Mason University, Washington, D. C., is a sculptural interpretation of mitosis as a process of imaginative creativity. The ascending movement of the composition spirals upwards in a double helix; this ascension is interwoven with general and specific sculptural forms. Some are curves, shapes and textures that imply an elemental existence: the un-shaped building material of the universe. Other forms are recognizable creatures, natural elements and human figures, many of which are motifs repeated throughout the catalogue raisonné of Greg Wyatt’s two and three dimensional career works—some created in the memory of previous works, others in the promise of works-to-be. This composition is a representation of the artistic imagination that creates and revises ideas, engaging in the evolutionary processes of genesis, replication, mutation, and invention. The cellular process of mitosis creates the possibility for a mutation to occur during the split—this possibility is also present in the creative model-to-monument process of studies, models, drafts, editions, and revisions. One form of artistic invention is the purposeful application of a previously observed mutation.

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Two Rivers