2001
90” x 12” x 60” 3 pieces installed side-by-side
White silk, white silk thread, painted steel vertical stands, mixed media.
Three Generations
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DNA
Three Generations
Three Generations (2001) is a foundational work in the artist’s decades-long investigation into heredity and intergenerational memory. The piece establishes a potent dialogue between ephemeral textiles and rigid structure through three white silk, hand-stitched sleeves draped over white painted steel uprights. The translucent silk creates a pristine diffusive aura as light is filtered through the double layers, suggesting the immaterial yet persistent nature of genetic code.
The sculpture physically manifests the concept of genetic anticipation. Subtle, chromosome-like stains on the lower third of each stand appear to expand and intensify as the viewer reads them from left to right, mimicking the processional order of a text. This visual expansion represents an inherited genetic disorder that grows more severe with an earlier onset across three passing generations, evolving from a mild to a severe state.
This exploration of duplication and lineage creates a conceptual bridge to the artist’s subsequent body of work, the Notes on Self series. By translating microscopic, scientific data—a process that began with Radtke’s DNA Series (1990s)—into a human-scaled, chronological form, the piece foregrounds the individual body’s vulnerability and its position within a vast genetic narrative. This focus on generational connection, scale, and the body as a “shifting snippet of space” prefigures later works like “Progeny”, marking “Three Generations” as a crucial pivot in the artist’s enduring practice.