Semelparity - a mixed media sculpture

35cm long × 17cm high × 20cm wide

Merino wool, silk, yarn, wire, resin, kozo paper, watercolour paint.

This work is inspired by the biological concept of semelparity—a reproductive strategy in which an organism reproduces only once in its lifetime, expending all its resources to ensure the survival of its offspring. The act of reproduction is so exhaustive that it results in the death of the parent.

In this imagined plant, the bulbous, succulent blue body of the parent has been hollowed out—its stored nutrients channelled through the neck to sustain its young. Once they are fully rooted, the parent will die. This is its final, fleeting moment of glory.