hurrengoa
stranger    You go outside to smoke a cigarette. You think about just how pissed off you were when they brought in the ban on smoking in bars. Nowadays, however, you feel that the short break afforded
by having to go outside for a smoke is priceless. Once you’ve had your shot of nicotine, you flick the cigarette butt into the drain at the side of the road and you head on back inside once more.

Later you will not be aware of what is going to happen. You’ll be asleep, or if you’re lucky, having sex with somebody. A mysterious woman carefully picks up your discarded cigarette butt with a tweezers and puts it into a plastic bag.

A couple of months later you’re walking down the street. You stop at the window display of an art gallery. There, hanging on the wall, are human heads, as if they were some kind of hunting trophy. You find this strange and decide to go inside. You notice something unusual straight away. You stop and look at a face that is somehow familiar to you. You suddenly realize that what
is hanging there is a 3D portrait of yourself.

How did it/you get here? Who stole your image? The head “hunter” is the artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg. Or at least that’s what it says on the exhibition poster. You pick up a catalogue. The preface reads as following: “that inspiration moment happened while sitting in a therapy session. While staring at a framed print on the wall I began to fixate on a tiny crack in the glass into which a small hair had become lodged. As my mind wandered I began to imagine who this seemingly insignificant hair belonged to, and more specifically what they might look like. After leaving the session I became keenly aware of the genetic trail left by every person in their daily life, and began to question what physical characteristics could be identified through the DNA left behind on a piece of gum or cigarette butt. The next step was to collect some of those genetic trails, with no other method than random. At the end, after that scientfic research, I remake their physicall appearance based in the DNA collected and create their 3D portraits”.

You cannot take your eyes off your portrait. Films like Blade Runner, Gattaca and Minority Report run through your head and you feel a shiver run down your spine. The image of Dolly the sheep comes to mind and you feel the need to get out of there. And as you make your way out, you suddenly think that, maybe, the person leaving is not really you. Maybe right now the person walking out into the wide world is a stranger who looks exactly like you. Maybe you are the head hanging on the wall. You need a smoke.