Short of Breath (Emerald Ash Borer Scars)
2024-2026
Handwoven on a digital-jacquard loom, this series grows from my research on the impacts of the emerald ash borer on human health and urban forests in Illinois. The insect larvae block nutrient flow in ash trees, killing millions across the US, and causing increased human deaths from respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Each weaving starts with photos of dead ash trees in Urbana and Chicago. From my photos, I trace the scars left by the ash borer larvae, enlarge them to human scale, and weave them using yarns and dyes derived from petrochemicals, plants, and insects. Many of the scars are woven in emerald-green plastic, the color of both the beetle’s wings and of plastic oxygen tubing—linking the faltering circulatory systems of trees and humans. Other scars are woven in safety-orange, caution tape-yellow, and blood red on black and white grounds, referencing the urban and human cost of this environmental crisis. In many pieces, the combination of woven structures with plastic reveals the underlying warp threads in the weaving, creating an effect of eating away at the cloth as the insects eat away at the trees.