Paper Ecologies
There is no biological definition of a weed. Weeds are a social construct: plants that grow by themselves where people do not want them to grow. I walk around my neighborhood and collect weeds from cracks in the sidewalk and vacant lots. These plants find ways to grow in locations of disturbance. Our society has a complicated relationship with invasive species and their colonialist histories. I invite you to walk with me through the tensions that arise around these plants and in finding space for layered and nuanced investigations.
My art practice forms a composting ecosystem: I am constantly making and re-making, the results of one effort becoming the material for the next, playing with the lines between image and object. My work deconstructs the cyanotype, a photographic process associated with botanical classification. I photograph during the murky green stage, before water turns the paper blue. I create laser-cut paper sculptures, freeing the plant from the flat plane, and re-photograph the sculptures, flattening them back out. Processes loop back and intertwine, with no clear beginning or end. This layered way of working reflects the cyanotype process itself, and mirrors how meaning accumulates in language through layers of repetition, history, and context. At its core, my process is an embodied attempt to know these plants and their place in the web of life.
This work will be on view at the MassArt SOWA Gallery April 25 - May 17th for my MFA Thesis Show, Reception May 1st.
There is no biological definition of a weed. Weeds are a social construct: plants that grow by themselves where people do not want them to grow. I walk around my neighborhood and collect weeds from cracks in the sidewalk and vacant lots. These plants find ways to grow in locations of disturbance. Our society has a complicated relationship with invasive species and their colonialist histories. I invite you to walk with me through the tensions that arise around these plants and in finding space for layered and nuanced investigations.
My art practice forms a composting ecosystem: I am constantly making and re-making, the results of one effort becoming the material for the next, playing with the lines between image and object. My work deconstructs the cyanotype, a photographic process associated with botanical classification. I photograph during the murky green stage, before water turns the paper blue. I create laser-cut paper sculptures, freeing the plant from the flat plane, and re-photograph the sculptures, flattening them back out. Processes loop back and intertwine, with no clear beginning or end. This layered way of working reflects the cyanotype process itself, and mirrors how meaning accumulates in language through layers of repetition, history, and context. At its core, my process is an embodied attempt to know these plants and their place in the web of life.
This work will be on view at the MassArt SOWA Gallery April 25 - May 17th for my MFA Thesis Show, Reception May 1st.