on the diversity of life, adapta–, extinction … & wanderlust
9” x 6″x1″ (closed) / 9” x 12” x 1″ (open)
2021-22
monoprint, acrylic paint, graphite, typewriter, handwriting, erasure poetry, found books
I am questioning the how’s of willing a life out of an existing set of circumstances and how that evolves into patterns of survival. How do I think about loss while losing? And how do I revel not only in the remnants of what is left but also in what manages to emerge at the same time? Life is always a constant state of ‘at the same time.’
There’s something about erasure as a process and this notion of using a form in which you have to ‘play the cards you are dealt’, that feels very appropriate to the discussion/exploration of adaptation, evolution, and progress in the face of ceaseless change. This felt like an interesting exercise to explore the idea of how memory allows us to quietly forget our current landscapes as we are in them, ultimately preparing us for what we will have to re-imagine amid those disappearances.
The physical books that were altered and mined to make this new book: Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit, On Extinction: How We Became Estranged From Nature by Melanie Challenger, and The Diversity of Life by E. O. Wilson.
