Ancient Relationships / Relaciones Ancestrales, 2023. In collaboration with Carolina Páez.
Ancient Relationships, made in collaboration with Carolina Páez, explores the symbiotic relationships between humans, legumes, and bacteria, focusing specifically on Rhizobacteria and its relationship with plant roots. Presented as an ikebana arrangement, the work places the plant’s roots as protagonists, making visible the often hidden but crucial role of symbiosis in supporting nitrogen fixation and the health of plants in soil.
Depending on the iteration, the plants are ancient varieties of legumes cultivated by Mesoamerican cultures, a reference to the resistance to monocultures and corporate seed control. Images behind the plants show the bacteria that enter root cells, allowing them to perform new functions. The blown glass forms, shaped by the rocks onto which they were melted, echo the ancient relationships that transform and shape plants and other organisms over time.
By shifting focus from the visible relationship between plants and humans to the invisible relationship between bacteria and roots, the work asks us to reconsider our interconnectedness with the microbial world.
Ancient Relationships / Relaciones Ancestrales
2023
Legume plants, Rhizobacteria, blown glass on lichenous rocks, photographic prints
In collaboration with Carolina Páez (CO)
The Death of a Naturalist, The Rest Gallery, Ithaca, NY, April — May 2023. Curated by Rodrigo Guzmán Serrano and Camaron Cohen. Supported by Cornell Council for the Arts.
Devenires Transespecie, Galería Municipal, Querétaro, Mexico, December 2023 — February 2024. Curated by Mónica Garrido.
Photography: Ben Bookout (Ithaca), Mónica Garrido (Querétaro)