Le pèlerin
Luc Guérard, 1950-
1993
Montréal, Québec, Canada
Mixed media
Collection of the artist
Photo : Courtesy of la Société des arts indisciplinés

There is beauty in variety. This example of urban folk art, rich in shapes and colors, is a collage, or a metissage, of the most varied recycled materials. Will this multi-facetted pilgrim find the secret code of life which he carries within himself?
 

Sculpture
Joseph Shink
XXth century
Québec, Canada
Painted wood
Collection: Musée de la civilisation, Québec, Canada
1972-9

In contrast to the variegated pilgrim, this folk sculpture, with its pure lines and static character, evokes an ideal of physical perfection. Should we be concerned that genetic manipulation could produce beings like this, perfect but uniform and straight-jacketed by their perfection?

The mystery remains, the one we think we’ve solved. In conquering death, illness, everything that threatens our notion of what is Beautiful, Right and Good, we are knocking at the gates of creation itself, rewriting the human condition: a noble soul in a healthy body, and a long life into the bargain. Taking the best of our diversity, mixing up our genes and our ideas, and selecting only the happy faces, we are bringing the battle between Good and Evil to a close.
Farewell to colours, farewell to kind faces, unforgettable faces, strange destinies, tragedies, regrets, flashes of brilliance, strokes of genius. Where will life go, when it is no longer a miracle, a dubious gift, an absolute mystery?

 
Metissage reinvented

We will now know how to decipher and change life’s secret code. With this ability to interfere in both reproduction and in the gene pool, are we moving towards the “perfect” being, the antithesis of metissage?

Genetic information on a human being is inscribed in the 100, 000 or so genes that make up our complex genetic code, of which we have still only grasped a tiny portion.

Genetic engineering permits us to change the genetic heritage of a living organism by introducing fragments of foreign DNA from another species. Thus food can be genetically modified, and goats can produce human insulin.

Genetic therapy consists of introducing a healthy gene into an organism to correct the effect of a defective one.

By reprogramming the genetic code, human beings are intervening in a process that has been guided by evolutionary laws for millions of years. Genetic technology throws the concept of evolution itself into question and presents humanity as a collection of replaceable tissues and cells.

What contemporary societies do with genetic technology will depend largely on their collective values and moral standards.