The GRIND, 2013

THE Garden of eden (snake chair), 2020

From the Great Serpent Jörmungandr in Norse mythology, to the snake that seduced Eve in the “Garden of Eden”, reptilian creatures have always managed to influence and shape storytelling. The serpent as a symbol has been ever present throughout the ages: from manipulative and cunning to healing and fertile, the role of the serpent is vast and unending. Thus, I began to question what role the snake represented in my own mythology.

I designed and created the ultimate “snake chair” based on my Judeo-Christian upbringing, questioning the narratives that were fed to me. The “Garden of Eden” chair is made of lasercut clear acrylic designed to be erected into twelve separate compartments. For the duration of this experimental project, each compartment housed its own ecosystem and snake. The snakes were placed into these separate ecosystems for a period of a few hours and carefully watched. The viewer and the snakes could see and sense the other environments and snakes in their separate compartments but could not directly interact with one another. This all seems eerily relevant to the reality in which we exist in today with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the world at large. This project also questions morality, ethics, and boundaries—and who or what defines these narratives we come to believe are true. Don’t we have some volition to create our own realities?

         In each of the twelve compartments also exists a 3D printed form based on a soundbite. Each form suggests a key phrase from a step of the twelve-step program. This chair symbolizes growth and healing through a particularly strange, and emotional time.