To create dna: study, Chicago-based artist McArthur Binion built upon a grid of xeroxed pages from his address book to reveal a personal narrative. The artist transformed the surface, exposing and concealing autobiographical details with layers of oil paint stick in vibrant, monochrome variations of marigold and ochre. Binion used this strategy to encourage closer looking and engage the viewer in his index of identity, labor, and time. Using the concept of the grid and intense physical rendering, he created a collaged history that grounds his work in both biography and material production.