Tobey Sharp Studio

When I was about eleven years old I was super into this tv show called My Babysitters a Vampire. There was one episode, I cannot at this point say which one, but it was one that did not connect directly to the overarching plot. It was about an eldritch tree that had invaded the main character’s school, causing everyone to start being infected with root-like parasites that were nesting in their heads. It was a bizarre episode, especially considering it was for kids, and as one of those said kids I was terrified. There was one scene in particular that sent me over the edge into terror; one of the characters had tried talking to a schoolmate, but was unable to due to the person’s headphones. I cannot remember how the headphones were taken off, but when they were, those reaching and writhing roots came out of the person’s ear along with the earbud. Needless to say I did not wear wired earbuds for a long while after that. 

Now, thinking about that episode and narrowing down exactly what caused that fear in me, has inspired this piece. Alongside the work Marthe 1 by Berlinde De Bruyckere from 2008. This sort of metamorphosis stemming from an invasion of the body has lived inside my mind for so long. I hold the concept of the body somewhere between fear and reverence. Not just as a relationship with my own body but the body and how it projects itself as a mold onto everything else in life. The body as a concept and our relationship with it is the lifeblood of creation by humans. We have constructed technology in our own image, giving it a brain, body, heart, and some would argue soul. With that relationship in mind, why do I still view something so similar to myself as something that could potentially be a parasitic invasion? I haven’t unpacked it all, and explaining this relationship is difficult but this train of thought I think will be taking me farther down a rabbit hole. For now it has culminated in this piece, Cable Management.