ICA Melissa Walter and Manuel Alejandro Rodríguez-Delgado at Institute of Contemporary Arts San Diego-North.

 by Patricia Frischer

Melissa Walter, still from video

 

Did you know that a piece of gum picked up in a gutter, can be so thoroughly probed and analyzed and with a certain amount of expense, an actual picture of the gum chewer can be produced?

 

Melissa Walter finds forensic technology fascinating. Not the portrait aspect, which by the way, is not included  in this conceptual exhibition, but the fact that DNA information can increasingly be used to convict the  accused. That includes, the rightly accused and help to clear the falsely accused.

Melissa Walter  in artist's talk

 This exhibition Plexus is a way for Walter to immerse herself in the process and she does using many mediums. She has handwritten sequences of information used as a decision tree for eye color. She uses ceramics and synthetic hair to create double helix shapes which reference time sequences. Smudgy little watercolor marks are arranged in lines and columns.  Her quest is to demonstrate the messiness of the process, while at the same time humanizing it.

Melissa Walter 

Melissa Walter 

Melissa Walter 

Melissa Walter 

A video and related sculpture feature the C, A, T, G of nucleotides. the  organic molecule that is the fundamental building block of DNA and RNA. The video is 13 minutes long. The average time it takes a person to use DNA to prove innocence is 13 years. Yes, life is messy.

Melissa Water is a 2020 San Diego Art Prize recipient, and this series continues her work from her exhibition at Bread and Salt.  

Manuel Alejandro Rodríguez-Delgado

 

Manuel Alejandro Rodríguez-Delgado uses found material to create self-contained survival systems which are sculptures in this exhibition titled Futuros Itinerantes.. They are partly inspired by Star Trek, partly by the U.S. Space Program and also by Puerto Rico's late-1980s bid to host the 2004 Olympics, and the slogan "We can do it."

Manuel Alejandro Rodríguez-Delgado

Both exhibitions are on view through Dec. 29, 2024

Institute of Contemporary Arts San Diego-North
1550 S. El Camino Real, Encinitas. Free.