MUTUAL AID, 2022
A single piece of oak is carefully shaped to fit inside a glass cylinder. Plants are introduced to it's controlled environment. Small pores on the underside of the leaves called stomata absorb carbon dioxide from the air, helping the plants grow. Water, in turn, evaporates from the open pores, and is absorbed by the oak, helping its fibers grow. The dried wood, despite our belief in its postmortem static submission, swells beyond its container, breaking it.
The intrinsic and immutable properties of wood demonstrate that while humans are capable of immense environmental destruction, we are not, in fact, powerful enough to mute the dynamism in which all life exists. As we position ourselves as an exterior force of domination, the natural world in turn exerts its own force in response, subverting our violence with violence.