cassie normandy white

This suite of monoprints uses twine, butcher paper and salt as metaphors for root networks, tree bark, and rocky surfaces, each fundamental components to the cycle of soil formation. Dark impressions reveal transcriptions of their substance, leaving traces of what was once there but is now gone. Monoprinting is a fleeting process and is used to echo the inevitable change and impermanence within nature. Each print traces unfixed materials which act as both carriers of and barriers between ink and paper. Using this process evolved from learning of Suzanne Simard’s forest ecology research, which reveals the function of the immense underground wood wide web. Much like the internet, underground fungal networks function as a forest communication and support system, allocating nutrients, minerals, defense signals, and hormones to those in need. Simard’s research helped reveal the world-within-worlds that exists beneath our feet: how vast mycorrhizal networks allow entire forest systems to function as a complex organism. Forests are not made solely of trees and plants competing for resources; rather, they are connected by infinite biological pathways, often operating cooperatively. This cooperative behavior contradicts notions of competition as the sole driving force of survival, and instead, points toward deep philosophical and spiritual questions about the ineffable interconnection (and mystery) of life.