Vivum ex Vivo contemplates the relationship between man and nature. Humans depend on ecosystems to deliver sustenance; however, nature is a web that coexists independent of our existence. The artwork conveys man’s attempts to harvest the natural world in a way where human actions can be predicted, but is futile in that nature continues to develop and evolve in tandem.
In photographs, silkworms are shown being bred in a disposable takeout food container, while honeybees are kept in linear plastic boxes. There is a stark difference between these two insects: silkworms have been commercially bred for so many centuries that genetic mutations render their wings futile, while honeybees are purely wild creatures that thousands of years of beekeeping prove impossible to tame. Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote that “the best laid plan of mice and men often go awry,” that after insurmountable effort to gain control, one may never fully grasp hold of it. Vivum ex Vivo is based upon layers of instinct over layers of time.
Though in the short term nature seems bendable and malleable, or easily destroyed, it is that same resilience that keeps it ineffable from the human hand.