This is a new work made in my studio from several thousand pieces of desert thorn branches;
Lycium pallidum and Lycium andersonii. This is a plant which grows on The Nevada Nuclear Test Site and was sent to me by Dr Lynn Fenstermaker, an earth and ecosystems scientist working for the Desert Research Institute on the Test Site.
The thorn is stung on Nylon thread within a perspex box, which is placed on a black stand which houses an LED spotlight which shines up through the work (My studio has too low a ceiling to allow a photograph). The shape of the mushroom cloud is taken from Amanita virosa (Destroying Angel), a highly poisonous species.
The work forms a part of on an on going series called Life in the Field of Death, about organisims living in conditions hostile to life.
