Artist Statement

This collaboration has brought together components of two works; 44 Marching Orders (2013) and Lea's Work Exploration I (2013). Ideas of existence and evolution merge with the materiality of the work to re-position the concepts of the natural and synthetic. Installed in the space is a suspended, delicately printed PVC sheet within a clear 44 gallon drum (200L), which is gradually filled with water. Within its walls the submerged acrylic print of human DNA begins to lift and disperse through the slow trickle of water, and once the drum is filled the slow process of disintegration of the print begins. The acrylic print of human DNA has been modeled on the cell of a Tree Dandelion (Sonchus Canarlensis)  - an evolutionary manifestation of the common Dandelion plant, found on the Galapagos Islands. Significantly, studies on island produced scientific material and data which lead one of the founders of evolutionary theory Charles Darwin to later publish the text 'On the Origin of Species (1859). The text overlaid upon this cell speaks to our connection or dissociation to our environment in the contemporary world. The unavoidable tension between the plastic forms and the integral water components gives shape to the methods of modern day water consumption and its commodification. The water used in the installation is, however, also a product of fabrication, sourced through local water networks and urban treatment plants.  This work seeks to further engage with the present reality of the contemporary world through the Anthropocene, this epoch, our epoch; Humanity is now influencing every aspect of our planet disrupting the cycles of biology, chemistry, geology by which elements like carbon and nitrogen circulate between the land, sea and atmosphere.  We're changing the way water moves around the globe as never before.