During the 1960s, a world-wide controversy followed the first heart transplant by the South African, Dr. Christian Bernard. Now heart transplants are commonplace. But how common is it to transplant a heart from a pig into a human? of course, the donor pig is genetically-engineered with huamn genetic material to ensure that the heart is more compatible with the immune system of the human recipient. In the next century, xenotransplantation will become commonplace.

The heart has long become the symbol for life. Jacques Deshaies has situated the story he is painting within the interior of a chamber of the pumping xenoheart; the metallic heart muscle reflecting the mechanical quality of this engeneered organ. Locate at the centre of the painting is an external view of a sterile, detached xenoheart. Flowing out of the heart is a strand of DNA which ties the media of the xenoheart together. On the DNA strand is an electrocardiogram or ECG, the visual representation of the sound of the beat of the xenoheart. These various perspectives of the xenoheart are also indicative of the range of moral perspectives in which this new technology will be juged by members of society.

Species are classified taxonomically based on their unique characteristic and are defined by the ability of members of the species to produce viable offspring. In this painting, the intersecting planes (the species' plane) behind the two figures are representative of this ordered world. In nature, genetic material did not cross the species' barrier. Currently, society allows researchers to humanize other life forms by engeneering human genes into microorganisms, plants and animals. Representing this loss of species' integrity, Jacques Deshaies has drawn the pig drifting out of its natural species' plane.

Guided by the DNA ethics of today, only the human species is guaranteed to retain its integrity into the next millenum. The tranplantation of the most culturally sacred of human organs, the heart, from animals into humans foreshadows the day when the human species loses its integrity. In anticipation of this day in our future, Jacques Deshaies portays the human figure drifting out of its species' plane.
Jacques Deshaies utilizes a spider web to illustrate the highly complex nature and structured order of the universe. A spider can agilly transverse his web to reach and devour other species which become entrapped. Humans, using biotechnology, are now in the process of spinning a technological web to harness nature. These technological advances raise some fundamental questions about the interaction between human technology and natural processes.

by Jock Langford, Environnement Canada - Ottawa - June 1998