2021
steel wire, copper wire, found rocks.
dimensions of installation 47 x 63 x 13 inches
This installation is a visually poetic interpretation of the process of birth, growth and transience through cosmic, biological and material perspectives.
I introspected on the concept of cosmology from a planetary lens; on the birth of planets. Cosmic accretion is a process whereby planets were created by the localized formation of mass densities across space driven largely by gravitational forces; the denser these formations, the more likely a planetary body could subsequently grow.
I have also been thinking more generally about the notion of conception from a biological point of view. The steel wire coils in an interactive fashion around a central axis made by coiling copper wire. The quasi-linear pattern which is created alludes to the alignment of chromosome coils along the equatorial plate in the mitosis process of cellular division which is part of the cell cycle of all eukaryotic organisms. The latter are organisms in which cells have a nucleus within a nuclear envelope - humans are eukaryotes. Chromosomes carry genetic materials that can ultimately give rise to the physical manifestation of a given individual.
The rocks are strewn in orbits on the floor as future pockets of condensation, as locations of possible future growths of planets. The Earth’s iron core of which this steel originated is very much like a metaphorical womb spewing lava, continually creating igneous rock formations as other minerals melt back into the planet’s mantle. Energy moves from one state of matter towards another.
The notion of growth is irremediably intertwined with division, with transformation, much as the process of living cannot be extracted from the process of dying.