A new kind of likeness

Britain's National Portrait Gallery, which has recently acquired a striking new wing, has this autumn also obtained a very new kind of portrait. Artist Marc Quinn has created a 'genomic portrait' of Sir John Sulston, former director of the Wellcome Trust's Sanger Centre near Cambridge, who led the UK arm of the human genome project which announced completion of the first draft last year. As the first entirely conceptual portrait to be shown at the gallery, it presents a detail of Sulston's genome. " While abstract in the aesthetic sense, it provides a representation of the sitter and precisely captures what is unique about him, " says Quinn. " In fact it is the most realistic portrait in the gallery since it carries the actual instructions that led to the creation of John. " " I like that it makes the invisible visible, and brings the inside out... we are the first generation to be able to see the instructions for making ourselves, " says Quinn.