Levelling the Hierarchy (Winter, 2020). This project is my response to Aristotle’s Scala Naturae. A series of multi-day walks took place via city sidewalks between my home and MEE-qan (Beacon Hill Park), Victoria, BC. By chance, I walked through a road construction zone on Sunday morning and resulted in objects unearthed by bulldozers still in situ and attached to the Earth’s surface. In the gallery, the items are arranged in a circle as I attempt to un-classify life. There is no hierarchical system because multi-species co-evolution is unpredictable. The objects are arranged on a wood panel painted white and situated on a low plinth for the viewer to circumnavigate around. The objects are both natural and human-made. Some objects are intersecting others – peanut shells intersect a feather or holly leaf. There’s a connection to humans as animals – hoarding and collecting, but the logic is left open in the grouping.
On this day, I collected: a small bell, a battered Armistice Day poppy, earplugs, a metal tag, a dead ten-lined June Beetle, a bolt, a broken spoon, and a painted rock with an inspirational message that reads, ‘Be your best self.’