Specimens (Bred by Culture) are a series of carved brass disks evoking both cellular life and symbolic artifacts. Drawing inspiration from E.C. Large’s novel Sugar in the Air and its conceptual framing of “breeding culture,” the specimens stand as symbols of a complex tension: they are both the results of and, active parts in a process that extracts, categorizes, and controls living matter based on criteria aimed at supporting a specific view of the living world. In doing so, the work meditates on how humans both contain and cultivate culture, highlighting how scientific observation has been involved in shaping imperial power, showing that the production of knowledge is deeply connected to histories of control and domination.