I embarked upon this residency with the intention to create work with materials found here, in Trinidad. I brought with me a packet of 24 karat gold leafing and my x-acto knife. I brought with me metals, one to slice and one to disguise.

In Hard Alchemy, I guilded coins of the lowest denomination: one cent, five cents, and ten cents. In a gesture of superficial alchemy, most specifically chrysopoeia which is the transmutation of base metals into gold, leafing the coins transformed them into something new. The change, previously nearly worthless, gained new allure both in presence and and value. They are anachronistic as there are no longer coins made of gold used in commerce. The coins remind us of pirate booty and of foil-coved chocolates all while they remain recognizable as legal tender. They have become the embodiment of desire, while still clinging to the truth of low value.

In Save Me Hanuman!, I call upon Hanuman to exact my revenge on the little creatures which wriggle, bite, and sting. Using images cut from an illustrated children's book of Hindu stories and a book on local insects, I have found both hero and antagonists to play out the battle between insect and god. This reimagined adventure invokes Hanuman for his courage, the courage I do not have in the face of the insects of Trinidad. In the works The Unreborn and Terror Cascade, I explore my fear and revulsion of caterpillars from larva to pupa. The Unreborn is an installation of 60 paper cocoons hanging from pins. Terror Cascade depicts a portal of enlarged caterpillar heads dripping with caterpillars falling headfirst and disappearing into another portal. The works Take That! and It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Hanuman! portray Hanuman in the air and mid-strike attacking the caterpillar monsters.  In another piece, I present a full page from the Ramayana titled There's Something on Your Face! Let Me Get That For You! and in this image I suggest that Hanuman is aggressively removing an insect from another Hanuman's face with his scepter. Lastly, there are a series of photos taken from around the yard with paper insects terrorizing the paper-cutout gods from the storybook.