◡ ◠ ⭘ ◠ ◡ (Compost Cycles for Island X)
MFA Thesis Exhibition
Audain Gallery, University of Victoria
Victoria, BC
April 26 – May 3, 2023

A large, multi-room shelter stands stands upright, outfitted with salvaged industrial materials. At its base is a dioramic rock formation with patches of dirt and small coastal plants. Carved with the graphemes of an unfamiliar language, and animated with sound and light, the shelter’s rooms contain details about the possible inhabitants; one or many beings who use human debris, plant matter, and waste to survive in a collapsing climate. It is backdropped by a projection of a digital ocean scene, pouring with rain, and revealing small, possibly similar islands in the distance.

Off to the side is a storage room recreating the artist’s studio. It includes in-progress objects for/from the shelter, speculative drawings of shelters made with salvaged materials, and notes about a fictional language, perhaps belonging to the being(s) of this island. Archetyped and detailed similar to the island’s rooms, the storage room implicates the artist as a possible occupant of the shelter.

◡ ◠ ⭘ ◠ ◡ uses fiction and play to explore speculative futures in a collapsing climate. It utilizes materials like real and fake plant matter, salvaged metal, reclaimed wood, hand tools, and electronics, tethering its speculative approach to a material now.

— Exhibition statement


I’ve come across three “transcendent” words in the language. These are ◡, ◠, and ⭘. Whereas all other characters in the alphabet are connected by stems to a baseline, ◡, ◠, and ⭘ transcend, They float above the baseline.

Ur (◡) is the bottom half of a circle, referred to as the carrier. On (◠) is the top half of a circle, referred to as the coverer or protector. Oh (⭘) is a full circle, referred to as the carrier-coverer. which visually transcend the baselines of the written language, floating above or around. The three words are polysemous, meaning they each contain many meanings. They can each be used as a verb, a noun, or adjective. And as words, are used genuinely and ironically. Their meaning depends on their context.

Among many things, ◡ can refer to being affectionate, benevolent, or warm. It can refer to a barrel, a mouth, the bottom of something (including a bum), a bowl, a collection, sex, soil, or supplies. It can mean to carry, to caress, to grow, to discuss, to love, or to transport.

Among many things, ◠ can refer to being durable, resistant, strong, or snug. It can refer to a blanket, a canopy, a leaf, the moon, shade, shelter, the sky, the sun, or a tarp. It can mean to cover, to fasten, to guard, to protect, to shade, to provide shelter, to shelter oneself or others, to shield, or to wrap.

⭘, as a written character, expresses the combination of ◡ and ◠. It can refer to being perfect or total. It can refer to all things, including time and space. It can refer to a covered vehicle or boat, an ecosystem, a shared home, a parent or guardian, utopia (which itself may contain or be contained by dystopia), affection, as well as world-and-nonworld. It often refers to kinship actions like to parent or be parented, to raise kin or be raised as kin, and to be born or to bear children. It can mean to be both a host and a guest simultaneously, to transport in a protecting way, to keep safe while traveling (“⭘!”, one might say to wish safe travels), to share or to teach.

— Excerpt from exhibition essay