Rolls & Tubes
Archival Pigment Print
Chartam purgamentum init carota, 2020 /
after Anna Atkins, Alaria esculenta, 1848–49
This piece encapsulates the hope and dread of 2020 perfectly for me. The relationship of the new growth of carrots, thinned from my deck garden, and an undulating DNA-like strand of toilet paper. The sad hope of nature, and the hoarding of a commodity--that is just a byproduct of a greater commodity in the trees we decimate to produce this luxury of the western world, is presented in homage to the biological studies produced by the great Anna Atkins. The absurdist assault on nature, and the idea of the scientific specimen, is perhaps the picture's greatest triumph.