Art has proven helpful in transcending the impulse of self-destruction at both the individual and collective level. Even so, my work accommodates the presence of ghosts (more shimmering than horrifying), as I realize we are in ecological disaster. Drawing from study of religion, myth, and ecology, I create 3D animations and virtual worlds that frame a harmonious future while also considering life after Earth.
Rather than a dark obsession with death, I engage with ideas of the afterlife as a gentle transparency. Something playful, transitory, and promised. In my series, “A Lush Ecosystem of Ghosts” attention is drawn to what we are losing on our current plane. Similar to the passing of a loved one, there is comfort and lessons found in memory. The apparitions of lost species appear to the viewer with soft edges, greater translucence, and otherworldly colors.
Balancing a desire for transcendence with cultural critique through an intersectional feminist lens, my virtual worlds are also inhabited by female avatars and floral geometry. Using the traditionally masculine mediums of 3D animation and VR, I create new visions for a woman’s place in the digital landscape. Inspired greatly by Claudia Hart’s “romantic rebellion against technocratic and bureaucratic culture” I am an enthusiastic participant in such inspired insurgencies.
Exploration (intellectual, emotional, and geographical) paired with close examination of the ties between sex, resource, and power generates the fuel behind my creative practice. My experience as both a woman in tech, and a solo world traveler has deepened my drive to create spaces in which women, nature, and sensuality coexist peacefully. Moving like breath, the slow swaying of flower structures hints at the advantage of healthy permeability vs. rigid borders. Expansion vs. entrapment. And how rigidity can be precursor to death.
It asks; What is weighing us down? What is on the other side? What would it feel like to live more in balance? How high could we scale as a conscientious society?.