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Helena Rubinstein Pavillon, Tel Aviv Art Museum, Israel November 2002
An exhibition of the winners of the Israeli Ministry of Culture Awards for Design.
The “Twins” project was composed of different steps of paired reproductions of lighting fixtures. Each was made of identical elements, including an element which dealt with the problem of cloned identity. Some settings were produced by a random process, not controlled by the designer, Ezri Tarazi, who is a twin.
Five pairs of twin lighting fixtures questioned the infinite possibilities of the genetic codes of twin humans and, in turn, its effects on the reproduction of non-human objects. The genetic codes in all living systems are the foundation through which evolution, change, and development are realized. A pair of codes facilitates reproduction, but identical codes stop development.
An encounter with identical human twins raises the primordial fear of identical reproduction which might be further augmented by present-day technological achievements. The complete mapping of the human-genome exposes people to new threats to their personal identities, a sense of belonging, relationships with their children and the industrial reproduction of functional attributes.
Identical twins confront some of these questions early in their lives.
For them, genetic reproduction is not in the future but exists right now. The completely different fingerprints of twins are a test for identity as proof of pre-embedded differences. Encoded fingerprint differences strengthen the possibility for a higher-ordered, transcendental component as a permutation of non-genetic components.
Identical twins raise the possibility of a mental entity which is different – even if genetic cloning has occurred and over which technicians and advanced technology have no control.