The molecular model in wireframe 3-D graphics, from the Biotechnology Research Institute in Montreal, is shown as a sequence of stills that are merged with a figure drawing in Homunculus. Housed within the molecular model, my homunculus protects her corporeal matter from the expanding biotechnological network of artificial images that composes a sort of parallel body. The homunculus of old is the internal "little man" that either springs fully formed from a spermatozoon or, as in Goethe's Faust, is crystallized in a vial. Here, she is an inner watcher who reflects the female self.
Homunculus is shaped by the ghosts of sacred iconography and old mythologies. The image in the photograph above the molecular sequence is from The Penitent Magdelene in the Wilderness,1660, by Elisabetta Sirani. This figure is a quintessential solitary outcast, allied with mutants and monsters.
