SICYONE

Most often, human chimerism does not manifest externally and can only be detected through DNA testing. As a result, the vast majority of human chimeras never learn of this unique characteristic. Yet, in a sense, each of us is a chimera—born of a unique “spontaneous mutation” between our own biological DNA and the “DNA of reality” in which we are shaped. Our lineage and environment imprint their own distinctive code, becoming an inseparable part of our identity, without ever fully merging into homogeneity with our “original code.” But how do we find balance between these two distinct internal forces—and prevent the foreign DNA from consuming the embryo of our true self, as the ancient Greek polis of Sicyon once adopted the Chimera as its patron, embracing a strange, incommensurable mutation as its own?

Through AI, I assemble a kind of visual chimera, fusing together elements previously unrelated—using the algorithm to create new, hybrid images. The ruins of nonexistent cities from imagined civilizations, reconstructed by neural networks, alongside “discovered” coins from these cities—bearing depictions of real biological chimeras—form a reversal of the lost Greek polis, where a mythical creature once adorned the obverse of its coinage. In this way, I ironize humanity’s futile attempt to “reconstruct” itself—imagining who we might have been had our personal DNA been freed from sociocultural, political, or territorial influences. Who might we have become… had we not become who we are?