Reclamation
In summer 2024 I created “Reclamation” as a part of a grant funded community art program. This piece of work is a body, my body, sculpted into an environment, turned into a rotscape to illustrate the true entanglement of all life, including our own, on this living planet. I am constantly trying to blur the boundaries between the body and the natural world through my work. Creating fiber sculpture that imagines our more visceral forms as being intertwined with botanical life forms, I want to challenge the viewer to see themselves as not just a person living on the planet, but a part of the planet itself. "Reclamation" imagines the rotscape, a surreal and yet realistic view of the body being reabsorbed in the earth. To show there is true beauty in the cycle of life; all things must decay and from that decay new life will flourish. We cannot have one without the other, they are inextricably intertwined and this is an idea we all should understand and even celebrate to truly live in harmony with our planet.
This sculpture hung at Arthur’s Market, a community gathering space in the historic Schenectady Stockade, from July - September 2024. It drew peoples attention to the community art program, “Entangled Threads” that focused on building community and connection through art and science, tying knowledge about mycology and the role fungi play in our ecosystems to the act of art making and connection and creating a community sculpture, “The Living Log” as a result of the program.