Laws, societal norms, and culture in our corporation dominated epoch, view nature only in relation to how it serves humanity. Today, animals and their environments have no legal rights of their own, unless the extinction of animals, forests or oceans affects humans, and yet, it is clear that our ability to survive is deeply connected to biodiversity.
The stress of climate change influences most of us, in everything we do and see.
Thinking about the way petro-driven capitalism has harmed the earth and all its creatures, I scavenged materials like animal bones and plastic waste, pollution and decay, on 1,000 acres of wilderness in Wyoming on an artist residency.I was looking for a way to make sense of this harm, and the physical and emotional toll it brings.
In the house where we stayed, previous residents had left random things like hula hoops and pompoms, fabrics and plastic water guns. In town, where we went once a week, I found an old fox taxidermy from the 1950’s at a used clothing store. In my studio, someone had left a stack of LIFE magazines.
I brought these ramshackle found materials into the studio, arranged, and photographed them in colorful dialogues with each other.
No Photoshop was used in this exploration, just magazines, glue, lighting, and chickenwire. The pictures are visual constructions of what these materials say about this moment on earth, about photography and about us as a species.
