Network Infinity, 2023
Rolled Steel, Engraved Perspex, Mirror, LED lights, Silicone Paint
Dimensions Variable
Commissioned by Willoughby Council for Inner Edge Drifting exhibition
Network Infinity explores the interconnected and tangled cultural root systems that third culture people experience. Positioned in the intersection of two or more cultures, third culture people use this intersectional space to build their own culture: Bringing in associations, understandings and perspectives from the cultures they live and are brought up in, while retaining their ancestral values. Occasionally the intermingling of these sometimes contradictory cultural values in which they operate in between can cause conflicts to arise within their own cultural identity—however, this is also a space rich in concepts and experiences that can act as a connector for both cultures.
This third cultural world is very much like the mycelium network, which draws and shares nutrients from the earth’s ecology around it while interconnecting the majority of the world’s plant life - simultaneously taking from and giving to the world around it. Although the third cultural space is small, it can have major impacts on the world around it, just as the microscopic fungal mycelia can affect behaviour at an ecological scale. Third culture peoples offer natural understanding of cultural sensitivity as they live in the interstices. Although mycelium systems and the third culture space are generally invisible, their impacts can be felt. Network Infinity seeks to inspire thought into what happens under the surface of both the earth’s ecology and the social ecology around us, allowing a space for connection.
