For eighteen months in 2015 and 2016, Dublin based lnishowen artist Maria McKinney worked with Dovea Genetics – a bull stud with 90 bulls standing at stud producing semen in a controlled environment. She developed a body of work that explores the correlation between the predictive features of genomics in the development of beef and dairy cattle, and how this might echo the prophesying function of the traditional corn dolly.

Her scientific collaborators were quantitative geneticist Dr. Donagh Berry, Teagasc, genome biologist Prof. David MacHugh, UCD, and Head of Veterinary Clinical Studies Prof. Michael Doherty, UCD. This significant body of work was first exhibited at the RNA in Dublin in September / October 2016 and includes sculpture, large-scale photographs and a video installation.