Absurd Naturalism: Field Biology on the Crust of the Earth

This project examines the growth and accumulation of collections, and the political implications of categorization in three installations: Lithosphere, Stones Shaped by Chance, and Chelonioidea. These installations invent worlds in a parallel universe; with their own biologies and genetics. They are influenced by scientific initiatives such as The Human Genome Project and Biosphere 2, which provide a conceptual framework for artworks that examine systems for life cycles and analysis. Using taxonomy, horror vacui, encyclopedias, and cabinets of curiosities as references, I accumulate my own collections with an awareness of the idiosyncrasies inherent to any collection. I use the term Absurd Naturalism to describe the impossibility of maintaining a neutral and omniscient standpoint as the creator of a collection. In this way, it also describes the field I am working in – problems and solutions circle one another until they are indistinguishable, and the work comes out of the center of this spiral. My installations take form by interpreting ecological systems, using handmade, crafted, and found materials. Repetition, mutation, and reproduction are central in both the content and the methodology. Drawing is the source of all mutations. Here, the aesthetics of DIY, childhood craft, queer spaces, and underground punk are used to question the authority of information and the meaning of scientific facts. While artists such as Albertus Seba and Luigi Serafini provide a conceptual basis for my work, collectives such as Paper Rad and Wham City serve as both my contemporaries, and my audience. Growth and categorization oscillate between the personal and the political in this project. The research questions move under my own skin and back into the studio. I am interested in genetics as the basis for familial relation and sameness, genetic mutation as a marker for change, and how genetics functions in redefining the category of biological life.