Statement

Tensioned silk cantilevered over viewers in a gallery demonstrates pressurization within a Ponderosa pine as it pumps water up against the force of gravity. Robotic sails translate changes in wind speed along the trunk of a pine into the gallery. Not-quite-flat paintings quilted within vinyl and pleather echo the slow labor of peatland mosses as they manufacture an artificial water table. An antiphonal choral performance allows us to hear differences in soil health and water content in two facing plots of extracted and restored peatland. 

My work combines experimental art + ecological science to explore mechanics of plant physiology. By translating these processes into artworks, I aim to build affinity with unfamiliar ecologies apparently out of sight or possessing different temporalities than our own. My practice combines digital sensing technology, such as bio-data sonification, and analog processes including painting with ink I make from locally-sourced plant matter – so the materials used in the piece add another layer of data.

When public understanding of ecological problems is limited, creative artists have been historically successful in uncovering background narratives, thereby shaping how scientifically-declared emergencies are perceived and acted upon. How do we balance a sense of urgency in the time of climate change with potential unintended consequences of our interventions?