Forest Deity

2020

Water color on paper, pencil drawing on tracing paper, aluminum, copper, lens, fishing thread, found objects.

May 14th, 2020, a heavily armed group of rightwing militia protesters gathered at the Michigan State Capitol to decry the Stay-At-Home order for COVID-19. This was the trigger for me to brainstorm with this idea with camouflage. Since then we’ve been seeing more and more civilians and militia groups wrapped in camouflage with war weapons in hand, sneaking into and threatening our everyday life.

Fungi occurs in every environment on Earth and play very important roles in most ecosystems. Along with bacteria, fungi are the major decomposers in most terrestrial (and some aquatic) ecosystems, and therefore play a critical role in biogeochemical cycles and in many food webs.

When you really look into lichen, a fungi, you’ll find all different colors, shapes, textures living and working together to make a better soil. Camouflage not to intimidate and hurt someone, but to sustain this planet so we can all live together.

October 2020

“Forest Deity” was a project for Sointula Art Shed’s Artists-We-Wish-Could-Do-Our-Residency series in our Window Gallery.

I sent them directions and parts in mail, and asked them to spend time to build it layer by layers, complete the piece by collaborating with found objects from the beautiful island. The process was documented in their instagram posts. You can check it here from October 21, 2020 to November 9, 2020.

The Sointula Art Shed is located at Sointula BC, Canada.