Ellen McMahon

Series of 12 Archival Fine Art Prints Mounted on Aluminum, Various Sizes, 2011 (signed editions of 5)

As more is being seen through the lens of "new science," are we in danger of forgetting that much of our human experience eludes measurement and rational explanation? Thinking about how art and science work hand-in-hand in forming our understanding of ourselves and our place in the world, led to “Phenotypes” which I hope will serve as an invitation to engage critically and skeptically with both.

 “McMahon…uses digital magic to put disparate objects together in a single image. She got a Fulbright grant in 2007 to work in Rocky Point, and her photographs pair human trash with objects washed up from the sea. Sand dollars stand side by side with plastic coffee-cup; a duck skull is lined up with a plastic box.

The combinations are witty, with McMahon uncovering heretofore unnoticed relationships between sea stuff and human junk. In "Punctuated Equilibriates," the long, pointed skull of a seagull is face to face with a long, pointed dental device. But all of them implicitly critique the human tendency to lay waste to nature.

These gorgeous images owe their beauty in part to McMahon's mastery of complex technologies. The objects are digitally altered so they'll be the same size—a bottle cap becomes the equal of a sea lion skull from Baja. Then they're supersized, printed in ivory or white on velvety black, and mounted on aluminum. Six coats of a clear gloss spray made the dark backgrounds even denser—as dark, maybe, as the bottom of the sea.

McMahon calls her series Phenotypes, the scientific word for classification of objects by traits. Her deliberately false pairings raise a cautionary note: We shouldn't necessarily believe everything science tells us.”

Regan, Margaret, Tucson Weekly

Adaptive Radiation: diversification of a species or single ancestral type into several forms that are each adaptively specialized to a specific environmental niche.

Heterotic: of or relating to hybrid vigor, Sympatrics: animals or plants occurring within the same geographical area; overlapping in distribution.

Nonoperculated: derived from operculum, a structure that closes or covers an aperture. Homologs: things having the same relation, relative position, or structure.

Tubercle: a small rounded protuberance, esp. on a bone or on the surface of an organism Recessive: relating to or denoting heritable characteristics controlled by genes that are expressed in offspring only when inherited from both parents.

Genetic Drift: random fluctuations in the frequency of the appearance of a gene in a small isolated population, presumably owing to chance rather than natural selection.

Allopatric: related species or populations occurring in separate non-overlapping geographical areas. Horripilate: to have one’s body hair bristle, as from fear or cold.

Balanced Polymorphism: the occurrence of a certain proportion of homozygotes and heterozygotes for specific genetic traits, which is maintained for generation by the forces of natural selection.

Reproductive Isolation: the inability of a species to breed successfully with related species due to geographical, behavioral, physiological, or genetic barriers or differences.

Littoral: relating to, or situated on the shore of the sea or a lake, Nomads: having no permanent abode.

Phylidic: phyla (misspelled), a group of organisms ranking above a class and below a kingdom Graduals: derived from gradualism, the theory that new species evolve through gradual changes.

Punctuated Equilibrium: the theory that speciation occurs in spurts of major genetic alterations that punctuate long periods of little change.