Invert Convert

Invert Convert is a multimedia sculptural assemblage that brings together a mannequin bust, bizarre figurative elements, an inverted tree of life, and a structure resembling an altar or confessional with a kneeling bench. Combining fabricated and repurposed components, the sculpture assumes the character of an improvised ceremonial apparatus, somewhere between a devotional shrine, a scientific display, and a contraption for administering conversion. Three malformed figures, recalling the proverbial wise monkeys, introduce sinister humor into this peculiar arrangement.

The evolutionary imagery invokes a history of attempts to represent the diversity and continuity of life. From Ernst Haeckel's elaborate genealogical trees to the identification of Archaea as a distinct domain of life and the study of horizontal gene transfer, the familiar branching diagram has become increasingly complicated by the lateral exchanges that connect otherwise divergent lineages. Life's history is not simply a succession of isolated branches but also a tangled account of interdependencies, transformations, and exchanges.

Against this background, Invert Convert stages a peculiar reversal. One lineage assumes the authority to interpret and administer the world from which it emerged. The inverted tree becomes an emblem of this appropriation, while the three grotesque monkeys appear as reluctant custodians of a secret: the self-appointed interpreter of nature is also an agent of its subjugation. The branching and interwoven history of life is converted into a hierarchy of entitlement, dependency, and control.

The confessional extends this inversion into ritual and obligation. Its kneeling bench evokes the exploitation of other species, while the presiding mannequin suggests an equivocal authority, part priestess, part technocratic administrator. The promise of emancipation becomes entangled with the perpetuation of debt, and the language of progress with the imperative of endless growth. Religious absolution and secular management converge in a ceremony whose participants are simultaneously beneficiaries, subjects, and creditors.

Yet the assemblage is not simply an illustration of ecological domination. Its improbable juxtapositions, absurd humor, and precarious arrangement frustrate the coherence of the very authority they evoke. Scientific classification, ritual submission, and technological administration share an unruly material presence. Invert Convert gives form to the unsettling possibility that the systems claiming to represent and improve the living world may instead appropriate its diversity to sustain their own authority.

Medium: Multimedia sculpture.

Materials: Wood, clay, aluminum, cloth, wax, mannequin bust, magnifying glass, inkjet print, paint, and LED lighting.

Dimensions: 20" wide x 20" deep x 69″ high