Genetic Puzzle

Growing up without a mother, I had limited access to my family archives. Not knowing where half of my genetics stemmed from, I always wondered why I looked the way I do. As I try to piece together my self-image from the information I do have, I used this project as research. Extracting images from my family archives, I found family members’ facial features that resembled my own to create a face that looked like mine. Through photos of my two dads, brother, grandparents, and other relatives, I created an image of a face, put together in a messy, fractured figuration. While some images have torn edges, some are cut out and pasted, and some are blended in, they all come together to create a face that resembles mine. The image is displayed as a portrait, emphasizing a straightforward, stereotypical picture of my face—one that would be saved for years as a token self-portrait. The title, “Genetic Puzzle,” focuses on the duality of the world “puzzle.” While the word means a game where pieces of an image come together to make a full picture, it also highlights my curiosity about my genetic history.