Symbiont I, detail (prototype), silkscreen on marbled silk with wire and thread, 2023.
‘The Neuron Forest: Cyborgs and Holobionts’ is an interconnected network of tree-ish symbionts wired together to form an an immersive environment. It began with an artist’s book I completed in 2021 called Hera221, which was about the life and loss of my sister to opioid addiction. While researching addiction, I learned about the synapses in the brain and the work of Spanish scientist/artist Santiago Ramón y Cajal who made gorgeous ink drawings of the neurons he saw in a microscope. I became interested in the ways in which addiction literally rewires the brain.
Symbiont I (prototype), silkscreen on marbled silk with wire and thread, 2023.
‘The Neuron Forest: Cyborgs and Holobionts’ functions as an archive, a repository of histories that should not have been forgotten, and a place to imagine new futures for humanity and our fellow species. Once we start looking, there are interconnected networks everywhere. Our neurons form a forest, the coral reef is another kind of symbiotic interconnected network. As we learn to find our place in these networks, we must learn to imagine new futures for humanity and our fellow beings on earth, even as we reach for the stars. We are animated stardust. Whether I am working with aluminum leaf or oak gall ink, paper or textile, I am working with, I am shaping stardust. This is how we live as complex symbiotic beings on a potentially living planet.
Trifecta (working title): The Neuron Forest, gelatin printed ferns, Golden open acrylic on kozo paper, 58 inches tall by 48 inches wide, 2023.
Deborah Santoro 