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Cheap Pearls and Disposable Gloves
Autopoiesis, first defined by biologists
Humberto Maturana and Francisco J. Varela, is a process whereby
a system produces its own organization, maintaining and constituting
itself in a space (e.g. a biological cell). Since the work I create
is inanimate, and cannot reproduce itself, I therefore must play
a role in this autonomous system – I am part of the process
of autopoiesis and self-production. What results is a self-contained
world with an emergent set of patterns and inherent logic.
References to the organic and biological
come out through my use biomorphic forms. My background in science
remains vital in my approach to my art; I do not make work about
science, but am still very much aware of the impact biological
systems have on our everyday existence and I
try to acknowledge this world, whether in forms that resemble amoeba,
or a model of a spreading disease that is referenced. The plasticity
of scale is important here; the microscopic can be made tangible
and visible at a human scale, but as the scale is shifted comes
a change in how we comprehend these forms, and the references that
we draw from.
H. R. Maturana and F. J. Varela, Autopoiesis
and Cognition. (Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel, 1980).
View Work
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About Caroline Mak
Caroline Mak is a visual artist from Hong Kong, currently residing
in Brooklyn, NY. She received her bachelor's degree in biology from
Stanford University and is a recent MFA graduate from the University
of Chicago.
Caroline moved to New York in 2005 and has a studio in Gowanus, Brooklyn
where she primarily works in sculpture and installations, using materials
that range from fabrics and lace, to industrial insulation foam.
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