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A two-person show with RISD and Bloomington friend and collaborator Khwanchira
The show is centered around an obsessive, futuristic vision of the aggressive but rich resource of the white mulberry (morus alba). Brought to Long Island in 1827 as a failed attempt to establish a domestic silk industry, white mulberry was eagerly planted across the eastern and Midwestern US since it was the preferred food source for silk worms in its native home of Central and Northern China. While the costs of producing silk and environmental factors quickly tanked the American silk industry, white mulberry spread quickly across the US from its tasty berries and flourished easily, colonizing disturbed soils of roadsides, train tracks and woodland edges. Using material from one particular tree in Bloomington, Nual and I consider mulberry as a problem but a resource that has no intention of leaving any time soon. Nual showed a series of Kozo paper works made from mulberry bark and I showed a series of green woodworking pieces from the wood.