Faculty of Design

Illustration

Geneviève Groulx

In Vitro

A fetus in a lava lamp. Oil painting on canvas.

“The painting of a fetus in a lava lamp is a metaphor for specimen jar preservation and in-vetro fertilization. Thematically, this painting speaks to advancements in artificial womb developments and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (designer babies). In my painting, the baby is grown (and ‘preserved’) in a blue lava lamp, mimicking the protection provided by the amniotic sac in a woman’s uterus during pregnancy. The lava lamp is “connected to”, and painted in front of an organ resembling a cross between a placenta and a human eye, which supplies essential life support for the baby in the form of nutrients and oxygen (from the placenta) as well as love, attention, admiration, and praise (from the human eye, of which the lava lamp and baby make up the pupil). The reference to the human eye is alluding to the question of the admiration of these advancements in genetics; these advancements are incredible and admirable, but also strange and disturbing in a way when one considers their future implications on society... is this vision of future pregnancies truly enlightened, or partially blinded to its potentially harmful effects? The baby’s state of living (dead or alive) is kept ambiguous, considering the very strange circumstance under which it is kept “alive” or “preserved”...”