A Family Tree By a Geneticist

Because breast cancer had occurred in Maria Kapajeva’s family, her gynecologist referred her for genetic testing four years ago. During the consultation, the geneticist drew the family tree displayed here, recording family members, their causes of death, and the possible carriers of the cancer gene. The complex and eventful history of an entire family was reduced to a set of clinical facts about illness and death.

The tests confirmed the doctors’ suspicions: Kapajeva carries the same gene mutation that caused her paternal grandmother to die of breast cancer. She is now exactly the same age her grandmother was at the time of her death. Maria’s father was then 19 years old, and soon her nephew will reach that same age. Certain patterns repeat across generations; the same genes reappear within a family, yet each life unfolds differently. Rather than an ending, however, the diagnosis marked the beginning of a new phase in Kapajeva’s life and artistic practice.

Although Kapajeva does not know what her grandmother’s voice sounded like, how she moved, or even how she smelled, she now feels more connected to her than ever before. At the same time, it is important not to reduce a person’s life solely to the illness that ultimately overcame them. Just as the artist herself is far more than a single gene, so too was the grandmother she never had the chance to know. This simple family tree proved essential for the artist’s treatment, yet the works in the exhibition unfold the family’s story in a far more nuanced and sensitive way.