Maija Savolainen

Sepia ebony female, vestigial males, 2009

Echo (or Inherent Affection to the Questions of Life and Death). A Statement by Maija Savolainen

Drosophila melanogaster, commonly known as the fruit fly, is one of the most studied organisms in modern genetics. It is impressive how much biological information about a human being that can be revealed through examining this little fly.

I tried to prove the first Mendelian inheritance law with four different drosophila phenotypes, wild-type (+), white (w), sepia ebony (se e) and vestigial (vg). I failed the test, but photographed my test material. The flies, which seem to be flying in the pictures, with wings high open, are the ones that never woke up from the anesthesia. They suffered as a result of my lust for knowledge, my attempt to freeze them in the moment of observation. Paradoxically, a photograph gives them a new life – they become the protagonists of my tableaus half-living.