Bound (Un)Bound

Nature creates patterns in both organic and regimented ways. I present to you two extremes.

Unbound

Finding patterns in nature has always been an interest of mine. This installation of screen-printed birds sprung from my fascination with starling murmurations. Watching thousands of birds fly in unison, creating seemingly organized shapes of varying density inspired this work. Using the walls of the gallery I hope to envelope the viewer with scale, pattern, and shape — engulfing them in the sheer number of birds I have used.

Bound

Counter to the natural way we see birds fly, or mammals herd, or insects swarm, farming practices will often separate animals from one another so that they do not harm each other or themselves with the goal of producing a worthy product for the consumer. This compartmentalizing of the animals has often a structured, repetitive, even claustrophobic aspect. In these 2 paintings I have placed the chickens within a confining grid leaving little room for movement in order to evoke a similar sensation.

(Un)bound

Although this show was conceived in November 2019, certain aspects have gained new resonance with me in light of the global pandemic crisis we are facing. I see new patterns emerging. As we become conscious of the distance we have to keep from one another, our physical and virtual spaces are now regimented and seemingly unnatural. Watching the changing patterns of a living virus as it grows and takes hold globally has become a disturbing daily visual record and the sheer numbers overwhelms us.

Humans are not separate from nature. We are nature. Our patterns change depending on our circumstances just like any other animal.