This series was created in April of 2022. With it, I hoped to consider my relational dependence on several of the objects that I had had attachments with.

Kale: This image represented my interest in cooking, health, and superfoods. Sadly, I did not grow the kale so it also represented my systemic dependence on industrialization.

Alcohol: When I created this series, I was 22. I was not a big drinker–and at 24, this remains true– but I was exploring what a relationship with liquor might look like for me. I remember specifically being eager to buy a bottle of Irish whiskey to see if it awoke something of my Irish heritage in me.

Oreos: Well, damn. Oreos are tasty. I don’t really know how they are made, but it probably involves corn and a bunch of other synthetic chemicals that are terrible for me. The thing is, I remember eating Oreos with my dad before he died. Little five-year-old Matt-moo learned from Jason that you leave the oreo to sit in your cup of milk until in sinks. Then you can scoop it out and enjoy it the ~proper~ way.

Cactus: Bristled masculinity. This comically phallic image has numerous gendered components to me. Tending to plants can be perceived of as feminine. But the aggressive, spiky, bold nature of the plant I was fostering also seems to codify masculinity.

Cast Iron: My cast iron was a gift from a beloved friend. And I treated it with great reverence. Cooking with it daily, and seasoning it in the oven with vegetable oil every two weeks. The tenderness and care I treated it with seemed to me an important part of the food I was cooking to nourish myself and my friends that I had over for dinner.

Knife: I’d be lying if this image doesn’t make me think of a symbolic castration. The violent, slicing, nature of the knife seems to me to acknowledge the inevitability of the harm that we must commit as heterotrophic beings. The unwashed knife still has part of a plant body on it in this image. I think cilantro?

Smart Phone: Truly cyborgs, we are. I have always had a tenuous relationship with my smart phone, and I no longer use it as my primary phone, instead opting for a dumb phone. The multi-tool dominated my attention and my intentionality. Now, in 2025, my scholarship focuses on human relationships with technology.

Medicine: An anxiety disorder and some supplements recommended to me by my psychiatrist. I cut my pills in half and took an even smaller dose than what my psychiatrist said was usually prescribed for seven year olds. I’m afraid of SSRIs and SNRIs. And I don’t depend on them in 2025.

Journal: I’ve kept a journal for about 10 years now, sometimes just recording my thoughts and feelings, sometimes scribbling shitty song lyrics or ideas I have for my life or my projects. All of the objects and systems involved in affording me this privilege is baffling to me. I usually don’t think about the trees that have given their life for me to write my shitty song lyrics on the paper for, but I should more.

Guitar: Music and creation! Thinking of myself as an artist was integral to the identity I constructed for myself. I’d like to try wearing that label again in 2025, but I don’t play music much anymore at all. I’ve forgotten almost all of the songs I’d written and learned. But music still informs my sense of beauty and purpose.