Floral Disruptions

If you’ve never heard of the Anthropocene, here’s a very brief primer - Anthropos is Greek for human and cene refers to a distinctive geological time period. The term is used to convey how, for the first time in history, the Earth is being transformed by one species – homo sapiens. I consider the Anthropocene as an invitation to think differently about human relationships with nature and other species. Evidence suggests this reorientation is already happening and there are grounds for optimism. Take forest ecologist Susan Simard, who looks at the way in which trees communicate with each other to enhance the health of forest ecosystems, part of a “wood wide web” that can also incorporate other species, including people. Then there’s the philosophers such as Timothy Morton and Donna Haraway both arguing that the Anthropocene provokes us to radically rethink how we perceive and relate to non-human animals and nature more generally.

The artworks ask the viewer to directly consider themselves as part of nature, either by visually depicting the mixing of nature with humans and visa versa. Creating an idealistic version of the perfect state of being which would be one fully connected to nature, creating new species of human and biological phenomenon that is fully balanced and grounded in its environment.