BASLISK, 2019
Chicken wire, handmade abaca paper, oil paint, yarn, easter eggs, dirt, and basil installation.
In greek and roman folklore, the Basilisk is a chicken-serpent hybrid monster that is noted to cause madness, spit venom that kills everything in the environment around it, and can kill any being by looking directly at it. The only way to kill the basilisk is to have it look at itself in a mirror. Its connection to the naming of the basil plant has many complex and uncertain roots, but is noted to have been the believed antidote to basilisk poison and prevent against insanity and death. This physically and metaphorically abstracted version of the “basilisk body” serves as a symbol for the way humans deal with their flaws and insecurities. Having the bodily and viscerally uncomfortable look to it highlights the difficulty that comes with confronting those things about yourself– but by looking at it, by looking at yourself, much like how when the basilisk creature looks at itself, the issue begins to die and create the space for new growth and protection against insanity that comes from stagnation.