Magnifera is an ongoing project where Lydia Daniller and I create spaces of eco-erotic power and protection. Inspired by the “Adder’s Tongue Credenza,” Northern Renaissance tableware designed to protect nobility from poisoning at banquets, we created an inversion wherein lesbian pleasure acts as an antidote to the poison of present day nobility. The original 15th century object is said to have derived its power from “tongue stones,” which Pliny the Elder postulated were amulets that fell from the sky during the Wolf Moon.  Others thought they were the petrified secretions from the mouths of Adder snakes. When held above poisoned drink or food, “tongue stones” were rumored to sweat.

In our work, we use mangos and growth from Queer gardens as vehicles of molecular transit for spells and wishes.  I draw on symbolism from esoteric lore and textural intimacy to lure people towards liberatory desires. Through fibers, steel, and clay, I use ancient technologies and encoded materials as a strategy for subversion.

Lydia, a garden voyeur, who asks her photographic subjects to show her the ways in which they love their plants, creates hunger for the bounty of the soil. Her work is an assertion that as we collectively face the depravity of advanced capitalist systems, we need wild imagination, we need joy, and we need to follow the guidance of Earth tenders.

Magnifera is an openhearted, playful invitation into imagination, love for what grows from the soil, and the medicinal waters of community ritual.

2024-present