"Sympathy beyond the confines of man, that is, humanity to the lower animals, seems to be the latest moral acquisition...this virtue, one of the noblest with which man is endowed, seems to arise incidentally from our sympathies becoming more tender and widely diffused, until they are extended to all sentient beings. As soon as this virtue is honored and practiced by some few men, it spreads through instruction and example to the young, and eventually becomes incorporated in public opinion."
- Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man.
With the precariousness of our environmental situation ever more apparent, the cultural discourse surrounding our place in the environment is still dominated by an outdated paradigm. My works present images, forms, and performances that are contrary to the dominant environmental discourse surrounding so called invasive plants and animals. They highlight the inseparability of natural and man-made phenomena.
The work provides documentation of the pockets or gaps in the urban metropolitan environment, under freeways, along rivers, so called waste places. These are places where the disaffected, and homeless congregate, and also where nature stakes a claim. Most of the plants and animals that are willing and able to grow in such places are non-native. Plants and animals that have wandered the globe and taken up residence far from where they originated. It should be pointed out that the movement of plants and animals is tied directly to the movement of people. These “invasive” species are global citizens of the non-human world. The places they occupy are the newest “wild” places, and they are precisely the breeding ground of a new relationship with the environment and way out of our environmental predicament. These works are examples, sign-posts on the path to a future where our culture no longer suffers an invisible impoverishment because of looming environmental catastrophe. If our culture is to survive we will need a blossoming of empathy for all living creatures.
- Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man.
With the precariousness of our environmental situation ever more apparent, the cultural discourse surrounding our place in the environment is still dominated by an outdated paradigm. My works present images, forms, and performances that are contrary to the dominant environmental discourse surrounding so called invasive plants and animals. They highlight the inseparability of natural and man-made phenomena.
The work provides documentation of the pockets or gaps in the urban metropolitan environment, under freeways, along rivers, so called waste places. These are places where the disaffected, and homeless congregate, and also where nature stakes a claim. Most of the plants and animals that are willing and able to grow in such places are non-native. Plants and animals that have wandered the globe and taken up residence far from where they originated. It should be pointed out that the movement of plants and animals is tied directly to the movement of people. These “invasive” species are global citizens of the non-human world. The places they occupy are the newest “wild” places, and they are precisely the breeding ground of a new relationship with the environment and way out of our environmental predicament. These works are examples, sign-posts on the path to a future where our culture no longer suffers an invisible impoverishment because of looming environmental catastrophe. If our culture is to survive we will need a blossoming of empathy for all living creatures.
Snail Tenement installed at Montalvo Art Center 2011. Wood, paper, wire, snails. 96"x48"x10"