L5S1 is part of a surrealist series examining fish (a long held fascination in mywork). Liminally positioned somewhere between living, degenerating, and regenerating, "L5S1" morphs a fish skeleton's spine into that of a giant kelp.
The creation of this sculpture was interrupted with my own spine, with a protruding L5S1 disk, exacerbated by degenerative disk disease. I keep returning to the creation of spines as a way to cope with my own dis-ease. They're a means of reminding myself that degeneration can be transformative. And they're a method for contemplating the natural relationship between life and decay.
