Flock is a response to the effects of competitive survivorship within natural and cultural ecosystems. The similarities between “invasive” monopolies in nature and society impel my work through drawing, sculpture and installation.
With a foundation in photography, my thought and work process is influenced by darkroom procedures and photographic equipment. The act of using a photographic enlarger reveals information unseen by the naked eye. The simple dynamics of light through material and distortion through lens presents an image or environment in an entirely new form for observation, revealing fragments of a whole. The revelation provided by this process is the impetus for my need to create work in which a viewer can be engaged in the desire and possible fulfillment in “seeing more”.
Corn has involuntarily become invasive, in that man has forced its overproduction. The Federal Treasury spends over $5 billion a year to subsidize corn, and yet farmers are encouraged to keep growing more while the supply of corn vastly exceeds its demand. Out of the corn that is produced, 3 out of every 5 kernels end up on a factory farm. (1)
Although involuntarily introduced in the U.S., starlings have become invasive on their own account. Cattle Feed lots suffer most from wintertime starling flocks, which can reach 100,000 or more per day. 1 Starling can eat 1 ounce of corn per day, which is 1/3 of its body weight. A million starlings can consume 27,500 tons of livestock feed during winter months and despoil even more feed with their droppings. In 2000, starlings damage to agriculture was $800 million based on $5/ hectare. (2)
Flock is an installation based on the interrelationship that has occurred between two species whose overabundance is profound: corn and starlings.