Artist Statement

My research interest is at the intersection of art, technology, and nature. In this body of work, Biomimical Rebirth, I explore the delicate balance between technological innovation and the timeless ingenuity of the natural world. 

I was sitting at the edge of a river, enjoying the fresh breeze and the warm sun on my face, when a dragonfly landed on my leg, seemingly unafraid. I marvelled at this beautiful insect, renown for its exceptional flying and predatory skills. Earlier that day, I had been reading about artificial intelligence (AI). The sophistication of computing and AI has grown in leaps and bounds in the last dozen years. I wondered how do these machines, created by humans, compare in sophistication to the timeless perfection of the dragonfly.

To explore this further, in 2023 I researched technology the collection at the Canada Science and Technology Museum (Ingenium) to find artifacts that in some way corresponded to the capabilities of a dragonfly. I photographed dozens of these innovative artifacts, and painstakingly assembled the images into montages that mimic dragonflies. I used jet engines to form the body and the tail, a fresnel lens from a lighthouse for the eyes, a gyroscope for the head, a magnetic core memory board for the wings, an oil well drill bit for the mouth, and a drone for the legs. 

My hypothetical techno-dragonfly pales in comparison to the complexity of the biological version. Dragonflies have thrived for hundreds of millions of years through the ceaseless process of evolution. Yet, the rapid and groundbreaking technological achievements that I photographed at Ingenium had been invented in only the last 100 years. There lies the conundrum: as we continue to blindingly develop ever more sophisticated computers and machines, do we risk becoming overly reliant on these creations, while destroying the natural world (and perhaps ourselves) in the process? Or is humanity simply a "blip" in the long natural evolution of the Earth?

Biomimical Rebirth, is a reflection on humanity's pride in its technological achievements and a reminder of the extraordinary resilience of nature.