Infinite Pollination 
Rose 01; Rose 02; Torchon 01

Electroluminescent wire, LDR sensors, jumper wires, JST connectors, controller boards, solder, copper tape, batteries, power inverters, resistors
Bobbin laced, soldered, coded
5x5x0.8 F / 1.5x1.5x0.2 M
2022-23
 

Three sculptures bear the likeness of large, open flowers with a central gaping hole full of what appears from afar like black pollen. Created by interlacing electroluminescent wire, each one features a different variation of a bobbin lace ground, as noted in their names: Rose 01, Rose 02, and Torchon 01. The framework of this project is the erotic queer-coded interaction in a public institution setting. It asks: What do pleasure and temptation look like in such spaces? What is the light signal for consent? Where is the visual boundary between pleasurable and violent acts, and whether it even exists? All three lace works have a few selected wires lit up, creating a petal-like pattern. If a person comes close to them and slowly inserts their hand into the central hole, the petals will become animated, changing from one sequence to another. By penetrating the lace with their whole hand, or their whole fist, they “pollinate” the lace. Through their hand, they explore the range of expressions the lace might take on. From slow and subtle going to rapid and alarming sequences, each flower has its own unique code and placement of “pollen” light sensors. Each Infinite Pollination is modeled after the measurements of my body: my height and my wingspan. The flowers are stretched and bound to the wall by nails, with a sign next to them that says: Please Touch Gently. Developed specifically for a solo exhibition in the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, they stood in the museum’s white cube for three months, available be activated by any visitor who would like to. The patterns for these lace flowers were developed in large part thanks to an Inksacpe bobbin lace plugin developed by Veronika Irvine, a mathematician and contemporary lace-maker. This plugin facilitates rapid ideations of polar bobbin lace grounds based on workable patterns. Polar lace grounds are in the realm of experimental lace-making, as many of these grounds are workable in theory only. It took about two months of thread lace experiments before I found a method how to translate a polar pattern to a workable lace. Following the successful making of two thread polar lace works, I used Irvine’s plugin in combination with Rhino3D to simulate different possibilities for color expressions. They then became the three flowers, each with 160 ends, 80 of those individually programmable.