Current and upcoming

Gut Flora is an ongoing series inspired by the Spring blooms around the city. What began as an obsession with the exuberant orange of the California poppy has gradually evolved into an exploration of mankind’s desire to exert control over nature and ourselves. In developing this work, I’ve been particularly amused that the poppy is named so similarly to Poppi, the third-wave soda brand that in this series serves as an emblem for hyper-optimized nutrition marketed under the banner of “natural” health. This punny coincidence has provided a useful point of entry to contrast the beauty of the natural world - fields of wildflowers, the play of light in a glass of orange liquid - with the results of our attempt to dominate it: flowers that wilt when cut and kept in a vase, the cold and cloying beauty of a soda can bearing cartoon fruit.