Chris Moore, Introduced Species, 2022
Forged, fabricated steel, galvanised, copper paint. H2500-3600 x W1200-4000 x D80mm.
Lynn Margulis once wrote, “Life on earth is more like a verb.” As an evolutionary theorist and cellular-molecular biologist, she spent much of her own life observing the behavioural patterns of other lifeforms. She witnessed among them an unerring tendency toward greater diversity and symbiotic relationships with neighbouring beings, both big and small.
Human beings have been a force of great transformation within earth’s natural systems, though largely, this has been with a mind to homogenising environments to serve their immediate needs. Aotearoa’s natural landscape is one example of this, with species brought by settlers over the centuries having a dramatic effect on endemic and indigenous species, often resulting in decreased biodiversity.
Chris Moore’s grove of galvanised steel sculptures references this history of Introduced Species, and their enormous impact upon the land. But, in their transience, they also gesture to a way of living upon it with a lighter tread, exercising caution and care in our interactions so that they might be a force of reciprocity and regeneration like those of most other lifeforms.
