Mating Grounds

Love of Philapores

Keep an eye out for the feathers.  The drawings depict scenes of struggling birds, in variances of degrees, from the ongoing narrative “After the Woods”.  These birds are called “Philapores” and literally mean the love of the pore, which is intended as a reference to the way in which information and code is transferred between the knight and the princess – on the feathers of the philapores, which consequently, the knight is obsessed with acquiring in order to elevate his status to regal and chivalrous grandeur, as a method of reunify with his vanished wife.  The birds struggle to release the feathers from bags; they struggle with the code, and at times are both trapped and devastated by it; and they struggle as they are incapable of conventional flight, but are able to traverse through dense matter like rock, water, and trees.  The land is plotted with traps, screens, and offerings.  The Philapores seek them out, and are ultimately after the same things as the inhabitants of the woods: the control of information, the form of dispersion, and the way it affects the land.

All drawings are 2005, ink, graphite, and gouache on paper, 11 3/8 x 14 3/8 inches.

After the Woods centers on the reunion of a young man and woman after a separation of 1000 years. Willed into existence by a conscious landscape that has rediscovered the code embedded within it, the man becomes a Knight adorned in armor while the woman is transformed into a Princess who over time evolves into a spaceship. While her metamorphosis represents the advancement of artificial intelligence his transformation triggers the evolution and expansion of the natural landscape. The Knight’s quest for the Princess leads him towards a realization and releasing code, disseminating consciousness like a form of alchemy throughout his immediate environment. The forest grows and becomes populated by fantastical creatures creating a new magical eco-system through which technology and nature are combined.