The Nature of Humankind in London

Abstract

A giant 120 m × 3 m hoarding outside the Wellcome Trust building in London is the site of a new work by New York artist Jason Middlebrook. Middlebrook's artwork, The Nature of Humankind, was commissioned by the Trust to highlight its role in the decoding of the human genome. It is the UK's longest public artwork and is said by the artist to reflect the similarities that genome sequencing has revealed between diverse species such as humans, plants and insects. The Observer newspaper compared the work to that of Kandinsky and the ‘landscapes of Dali and the Surrealists’. Enlarged 12 times from the original, the unveiling of the piece coincides with an exhibition of Middlebrook's work at the Wellcome Trust's Two10 gallery. It is hoped that providing such a dramatic change to this part of the London landscape will spark passers-by to think more about the role of science in their lives as well as to find out more about the work of the Trust in biomedical research. The artwork is part of Wellcome's ongoing ‘science and art’ project and will be on display along the Euston Road until February 2002. Links: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk D.S.