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The Viable
2008
572 x 755 mms
pen-and-ink on watercolour paper
A visual meditation on disease, and the chanciness of life.
In 2008, a 54 year old Pedunculate oak tree on the edge of Cranborne Chase produced an extraordinarily rich crop of acorns, but almost all were infected by larval gall wasps. Such infections eventually destroy the acorn, consuming the internal soft tissue. In this picture there are forty-two acorns, forty-one of which have been fatally infected. Just one remains viable.
