Statement
A relationship is like a virus, a microscopic fragment that reproduces inside the cells of living hosts. We, as individuals and groups, play the parts of virus and host. The resulting infection creates a cycle of responding; of posturing, mirroring, projecting, and cannibalizing the traits of the people and cultures with which we come in contact. Our family and friends, our lovers, heroes, and villains all become hosts to our viruses and infections to our host, in an ongoing process of appropriation between ourselves and others.
This process is growth. It can also be crisis. Viral infections always cause physiological change in the host, either by disease or resulting immunity. Often the virus, host, or both mutate from their exposure to the other. I explore this play for dominance using portraits and implied narratives of hybrid creatures that are the sum of their parts. The combined images of humans and animals reinforce the similarities between all living things, and the needs and desires that fuel them, while referencing genetic engineering and evolutionary anomalies.