SELECTED WORKS ..................
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OPEN SOURCE,
SNAILEIDOLIA deals with the tension between snails existing in and for themselves versus the human inclination to view them as an extractable resource. Since the early Phoenicians who extracted Tyrian purple from Murex snails (10,000 snails for 1 gram of dye), humans have exploited snails for research and use in the culinary, cosmetic, medical, and scientific fields – among others – driving some to extinction and mass-producing others as commodities. Snails have their own reason for being without humans enlisting them to our needs, yet humans can’t resist. My obsession with snails manifested in many ways over the years with both snail fictions and facts. For my first presentation of Snaileidolia in 2022 at Council St. in Los Angeles - a large and tall open space - I showed hundreds of fabric knots ranging from 1/16 inch to 10 inches and slime trails. For his exhibition at Open Source Gallery, I flipped this format by manipulating scale - making one giant object in a small space. Consistent with Three-Dimensional Literature, Snaileidolia includes a collection of short stories that readers can pair with the work presented in the gallery. During the run of the exhibition, I organized a reading to allow viewers to experience the artworks and stories simultaneously. I also organized a panel discussion with evolutionary biologist Dr. Menno Schilthuizen and biologist and curator of malacology, Dr. Norine W. Yeung, and a snail safari with local naturalist Matthew Wills in Brooklyn to introduce the human community to the snail communities.
A CONFLUENCE OF SNAILS, Reading by David Colosi: May 6, 2023
SNAIL SAFARI led by Matthew Wills: April 22, 2023 (photo by Meghan Marin)
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