life forms
solo exhibition at view center for arts and culture
old forge, ny
We are worlds within worlds.
The more we learn about ourselves, our planet and the living things that inhabit it, the more we are learning that no entity is truly singular. No one and no thing is simply itself, but really an ecosystem, supporting a myriad of living things.
The microbiome of our guts and the wood wide web of the forests are scientific arenas that we are just beginning to understand. The more we learn about them, the more the idea of everything being interconnected becomes a scientific fact.
As life forms on this planet, we support life forms within us. There are trillions of microscopic organisms that live within us in symbiosis, digesting our food, influencing our mood and affecting our health for good and bad depending on how we treat them and feed them. Forests communicate with each other through the mycorrhizal fungal networks that inhabit the soil, using them to send out warning messages, share nutrients and support each other. When we die, or an animal or a plant dies, the organism is consumed by other life forms. It is recycled and brought back into the ecosystem as new matter, as nutrients for new life. As we come to understand our living planet as a truly interconnected living thing, and that we as humans are a part of that living thing, will that change how we think, how we act towards our planet and towards each other?