Cheryl Hutchens
Artwork / 2017
Bifurcate
glass beads, nylon thread
97 x 97 x 2 cm
Photographs by Sam Roberts
This work is a floor piece composed of glass seed beads, strung together in a circular branching structure just under 1m in diameter. In an experiment exploring the idea of biological complexity, one string of beads was continually split in two until a complex circular branching structure was formed. Complex branching structures are common in the biological world: vascular systems, nervous systems, bronchi and bronchioles. The evolutionary tree of life is similarly structured, mapping out the complexity of all living organisms from single cell to warm blooded mammal. Life growing, branching, developing in ever-increasing complexity. This work ponders the fragility of the human body, the multitudinous minute detail of function required to sustain it, and our place in the biological world.