Modern life is cluttered with merchants of desire brokering replications of the natural world to a highly receptive public. And no wonder—the natural world is irresistibly incandescent with lively narratives, colorful creatures, and rich allusions that conspire to delight the senses and provoke the imagination. For most of us it is a state of mind that draws its currency from the appropriation of its best and most enduring quality: it is real.
But faced as it is with our monumental greed, and armed with little more than an obstinate disposition, the orderly and elegant beauty of this world is slipping into verifiable decline; to the extent, I would argue, that nature has inevitably become for us a choice between true authenticity (burdensomely high maintenance) and the convenience of well-crafted artifice—an economic and ethical one that wouldn’t exist were the original not so often sacrificed, sleight of hand by unscrupulous merchants of desire or otherwise, to manufacture the imitation.
The imaginary landscapes here are meant to highlight this modern dilemma and the ongoing dance of attrition where nature is co-opted by its own fabricated image, or, where the snake as jewelry, becomes the prey of the bird as silhouette.
Chromogenic prints, dimensions vary (approx. 32 in. at longest side)
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