"Marco" / "Polo" Loop

Queen Bee Introduction Cage

5/26

 

 

Combustion Cycle No. 1

Caryatid (Horizontal Carbon Matrix), 2026

Mixed media collage
with dead bees and
potato chips on heavyweight paper

The Black Void: 

Suspended against an absolute black background, the cluster floats like a stagnant smoke plume or a microscopic look into a failing lung. This "Ash" is a conceptual illusion constructed from the literal corpses of nature's most vital workers and the brittle remnants of industrial food processing. It provides the volatile, carbon-rich matter that the later panels will attempt to break down, process, and alchemically transform into green growth.

 
This work projects the structural metaphor of a formal Japanese dress sash onto a toxic, scorched canyon topography.
  • The Bound Core: A dense, charcoal stratum stretches across the valley floor, acting as the landscape's Obi. This dark sash tightly wraps, constricts, and stabilizes the stomach of the wounded earth.
  • The Patterned Embers: Within the central knot of this carbonized sash, the diamond grid of a dress pattern melts into the charred vehicle wreckage, permanently fusing human domestic planning with industrial ruins.
 

 

 
 

 

Combustion Cycle No. 7 (The Cellular Ash Matrix), 2026

Fiber Based Print from Expired Polaroid Film Negative, and
 Vintage sewing patterns

 

  • The Domestic Template:
  •  Mounted over the technical diagrams of a sewing pattern instructions ("Make machine buttonholes," "Stitch lower edges together"), the stark crackle pattern acts as a destructive overlay. It shows nature’s volatile elements completely fracturing the orderly, structured instructions of human domesticity and manufacturing.
 
 

 

 
 

 

 


Combustion Cycle No. 6

Caryatid (Vertical Carbon Lung), 2026

 Mixed media collage with

chemical emulsion transfers,

intaglio elements on heavyweight paper.

 

Fractured respiratory filter challenges the traditional visual boundaries of landscape documentation.
 

 

Caryatid (Horizontal Carbon Matrix) 

(Carbon Integration)

The Obi of the Earth 

By viewing the dark, discarded material at the base of the ridge as an Obi (the traditional female sash wrapped around the stomach), the landscape shifts from a simple environmental site into a deeply symbolic, maternal body.
  • The Protective Bind: The black sash wraps tightly around the midsection of the earth, mimicking how a Japanese Obi constricts, stabilizes, and protects the core of the female body. Positioned at the exact naval or womb point of the canyon, this dark binding represents the heavy holding place where the trauma of the Malibu fires is physically contained and processed.
  • The Carbon Core: The Obi acts as a dense anchor made of concentrated carbon. It binds the fractured, eroded silt walls together, preventing the fragile mountain body from collapsing under the weight of ecological degradation.

 

Caryatid (Horizontal Carbon Matrix), 2026

Mixed media collage with

chemical emulsion transfers,

textured carmine pulp, and intaglio

elements on heavyweight paper.

 

 
The Horizon Line of the Flesh:
 
Arranged horizontally, the irregular, hand-torn silhouettes abandon traditional rectangular constraints. The collage forms a jagged coastline or a scarred mountain ridge. The black, patterned spine on the left no longer holds up a roof; instead, it burrows horizontally like a root system or an exposed nervous system, mining the silver-gray ground.
 
 
 
 
 

 

Caryatid (Horizontal Carbon Matrix)
Chemical emulsion transfer
heavyweight paper
2026
 
Structural metaphor of a formal Japanese dress sash onto a toxic, scorched canyon topography.
  • The Bound Core: A dense, charcoal stratum stretches across the valley floor, acting as the landscape's Obi. This dark sash tightly wraps, constricts, and stabilizes the stomach of the wounded earth.
  • The Chemical Compression: A radioactive, sulfur-amber haze floods the canyon, raining down spots of airborne soot. The Obi acts as a vital containment mechanism, compressing the volatile carbon so it can cool and transform into new green growth.
 

 Caryatid Triptych (The Atmospheric Rebirth), 2026

Chemical emulsion transfers 

 
  • The Flanking Caryatids: The two vertical side panels present a mirrored, classical male or female torso in a strong, leaning stance. Stripped of explicit identity, they function as literal Caryatids—architectural support pillars traditionally built to bear heavy structures. Cast in a cool, atmospheric blue-gray tone, they represent humanity structurally stepping forward to shoulder the weight of the climate disaster. Their muscular forms mirror the sweeping ridges of the scarred canyon walls.