A Code for Tulips (2018)

The images used are the result of the first time the tulip genome was sequenced using Oxford Nanapore 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 white background and vice versa to illustrate the binary aspect of a gene; it is either on or off.