Antecedents, 2020
Dye sublimated image film, tempered glass, stainless steel, LED 6’x4’x3″ per box

Antecedents is a set of five light-boxes which blend inspirations from scientific practice, concepts rooted in Plateau origin stories, and ruminations on our relationships with the life-forms and ecosystems with which we share the world. Structurally, the artwork refers to the history of diagnostic processes through borrowing the aesthetic of radio imaging and turning the medical light-box into a frame. Set in each frame is a reference to the world before humankind. Before the two-legged people, there were four-legged people, people of the sky, people of the water, and people of the land. Each possessed what was needed to survive in their environment. But when two-legged people came into being, we could not survive on our own. We were vulnerable, and so we became the children of all the peoples before us.  Through their sacrifice and parentage, we are able to thrive. When diagnosing our struggles for equitable health and vitality as a human community, we must also look to the pillars of life that support us. Antecedents illuminates symbolic facets of the living world whose health is intrinsically connected to our own, reminds us of our vulnerability, and our relationship within the larger kinship of life.

Commissioned by the Washington State Arts Commission in partnership with the University of Washington for the Population Health Building, University of Washington, Seattle, WA