about

CV

Instagram: @ratsarenotgross

Statement & Bio:

I want to understand what it means to be human: why we behave the way we do and how we construct ideas of place, identity, and belonging in relation to one another and the broader living world. I am both a conceptual artist and a scientist, and I see these fields as parallel approaches to understanding ourselves.

I was born in Hawaii, grew up in New Mexico, and spent my childhood summers in Vermont. My experiences with these diverse landscapes and cultures taught me to appreciate both diversity and connectedness, and how ecology and memory shape how we see ourselves in relation to each other and the more-than-human-world.

I’m interested in the relationships among humans, plants, more-than-human animals, and landscapes. I wonder how our experience of the natural world is shaped by our controlled, human-centered environments and how estrangement from it impairs our ability to empathize with our earthly kin. My work explores the boundaries we construct between human and more-than-human life, the familiar and the foreign, the worthy and the unworthy. I think about the ways those distinctions have become embedded in our societal hierarchies and concepts of "the other.”

My practice is an act of attention and tenderness. My work is a meditation on coexistence and interdependence with our earthly kin, and the emotional and ethical consequences of disconnection. I use my personal experiences to connect with the viewer. I ask them to think more deeply about our relationship to the living world and to imagine a future grounded in reciprocity, tenderness, and shared belonging.

I hold a BFA in Studio Art and a PhD in Anthropology, and my work has been exhibited in galleries across the United States.