Survival Relationships No.2 (Symbiosis State)

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The works in Amber Stucke’s series of detailed drawings titled “Survival Relationships” combine representations of lichen, fungi, algae, and moss in symbiotic relationships with imagined organic forms that the artist terms “vessels.” These vessels correlate to the artist’s understanding of the human body as a vessel for consciousness and knowledge, and also to humans’ relationships with other organisms. Informed by scientific research and taxonomic classification systems, Stucke’s drawings are rendered in fine detail, resembling illustrations of botanical specimens in a biological encyclopedia. Though the forms depicted are only sometimes based on actual observed organisms, both real and imagined forms intermingle and are presented in an equal level of high detail so that the viewer may perceive them and their relationships as factual. Stucke’s “Survival Relationships” fall within her broader project titled “Symbiosis State,” which includes multiple bodies of work that the artist has produced since 2010 to explore the concept of symbiosis, which is defined as an “interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both.” The three large drawings in “Survival Relationships,” rendered in graphite and gouache on paper, are highly impressive in their scale and technical acuity. Stucke’s smaller series of drawings on animal vellum further investigate parasitic, mutualistic, commensalistic, and sexual relationships between organisms.