Science of Eugenics

A Mixed Media Installation, 1993 The Installation Space, School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, USA.

Materials: Old Photographs of American and Japanese Families, Hand-Sewn Recycled Fabric, Copper Rings, Cast Plaster, Book (Science of Eugenics) and Fresh Apples.

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  The book “Science of Eugenics” was first published in 1904 and by 1922, 250,000copies had already been printed. The book talks about the improvement of ‘the human race’ by methods of selective sex and reproduction.

I thought about people like my grandmother in Japan who adopted a child, my father, just before the First World War. He was not healthy and it was not an easy time to raise this child whose health continued to fail almost until the outbreak of the Second World War. Under the unconditional love of my grandparents, my father recovered and lived to be 95 years old.

My mother-in-law came to my mind also. She had to watch her newly married husband leave to fight the Japanese in the Pacific in the Second World War. She delivered a child while her husband fought.

Despite adverse circumstances, life continues as the uncontrollably fragrant natural power of apples in their honeymoon bed changing in time in the air of the room where we find ourselves surrounded by the invisibility of the life force.