Kate MacDowell

In this work, Crave, the artist Kate MacDowell has hand-sculptured porcelain to make a human/plant hybrid. MacDowell is better known for her animal/plant hybrids, but in this series the plant appears to grow out of human veins and body parts. As MacDowell discusses the influences in her work,

“The romantic ideal of a union with the natural world conflicts with our contemporary impact on the environment.  These pieces are in part responses to environmental stressors including climate change, toxic pollution, and gm crops.  They also borrow from myth, art history, figures of speech and other cultural touchstones.  In some pieces aspects of the human figure stand-in for ourselves and act out sometimes harrowing, sometimes humorous transformations which illustrate our current relationship with the natural world.  In each case the union between man and nature is shown to be one of friction and discomfort with the disturbing implication that we too are vulnerable to being victimized by our destructive practices.”