Birth of Life

Birth of Life, (2000)
Wood, matrix G, rocks, cable, steel
180 x 188 x 107 cm

The Birth of life revisits the recurring theme of the life cycle and reproduction found in my earlier works at Emily Carr. Essentially, this work is a creation story that imagines the birth of all life in the beginning of time. The sculptural form is a poetic gesture of the beauty of birth, with an arched tree that transforms into an umbilical cord suspending a net of rocks. It embraces mythological and scientific stories that describe all of life evolving from the ocean, just as all human existence begins in the salty amniotic fluid of the womb. The stones in the net are the beginning cells that metamorphosis into embryos or plants. It is at this stage that all living things have the same form and are equal despite the anthrocentric philosophy of western civilization. Instead, the work encompasses traditional Native philosophies that describe the life cycle and reproduction in a holistic sense, each life having an important contribution to the ‘web of life’ a necessity that maintains the natural rhythms and dynamics in our environment and in fact keeps humans alive.