MASON KUPINA

An empty can thrown from a car lies next to dead leaves fallen from a tree. One is naturally occurring, the other is manufactured, though they both find the same resting place. How do these otherwise foreign objects relate to each other? 

Human’s ever evolving advancements, in contrast to nature’s timeless persistence and consistency is what I put on display. When we take a new step, we often forget, or even ignore the last one while nature works to recover our past footprints. Manufactured creations are slowly eroded by natural forces, as their original elements are reclaimed by the earth. Rust, rot, and other forms of decay are all examples of this regeneration that I often rely on to convey this message. Insects are shown preserved to resemble their resilience to the environmental changes we submit them to, and their struggle to do so. 

To convey our earthly experience, I use artifacts from human history to reveal how we relate to nature. These objects are not often physically altered upon finding, rather their context is manipulated through compositional choices to demonstrate how they relate to one another. In doing so, parallels, that would otherwise be overlooked, are discovered. Insects and organic materials are utilized to resemble a persistence, the essence of mother nature, that we often attempt to emulate through modern design.