Faculty of Art

Cross-Disciplinary Art: Life Studies

Taylor Ross

Amensalism

Amensalism [ey-men-suh-liz-uhm]Noun•EcologyA biological interaction wherein one organism causes harm to another without any cost or benefits to itself.Personification of Illness and trauma through the lens of a biological wire structure consuming the human form. “Amensalism” is both art and therapy, a physical exploration of incurable illness and disease.(Images Include both the In Process and Finished Work)

“Through this piece I am reinterpreting and repurposing traumatic imagery from my first psychotic break, through art. I have never allowed myself the full opportunity to work through these traumas, so this work is art but also an avenue for me to let myself feel my past through fresh eyes. One of my delusions when I was in the height of my psychotic break was the imagery of being trapped in a room, strapped to a chair, and wires and tubes being attached and inserted into my body and brain, transferring my consciousness into an alternate reality (simulation). It felt so real at the time that I truly believed that the real world was a simulation, and that I had to get back to my real body that was trapped and strapped to that chair in that room. I wanted to personify the imagery seen in my psychotic break as an actual parasitic wire being with muscle, veins, organs, and blood vessels. Through depicting my imagery as something akin to a parasite, I wanted to convey the idea of this parasite consuming, constricting, infecting and taking over my body and mind. By using wires to create this piece, I am using part of the original imagery as the material, creating a symbiosis between material and meaning. These wires have been hand cut, shaped, stripped, and sculpted to mimic a biological form, with the wires becoming a physical manifestation of the traumatic imagery the piece centres around, rather than just an aspect. This piece has been informed by in depth research into the anatomy, biology, decomposition and forms of the human body.What matters to me most, and what I want to get across, is less about my own personal experiences, but instead a piece that conveys strong emotions of constriction, binding, struggling, and consumption of the human form. Through me working through my past within this piece, I want it to be open to any and all interpretations and ways it may connect to the viewers.”