CommentStreams:Aaada5bac9b388fc8b61896dfeb5f965

Your work on the Borderers is fascinating! Taking the "surface" to draw a parallel between the human skin and the landscape as planetary skin is very powerful. "Mother Earth" becomes almost literal. I love this description of the effects of your work: "The photographs blur the lines between tumors and mountains, producing uncanny surfaces where beauty and toxicity coexist." I think it is great you explore the link between critical work on normal/abnormal bodies (in addition to the work you mobilise I have to think of the work by Canguilhem and Annemarie Mol) and the planet's surface.

If anything, I was wondering what your take on the notion of "toxicity" is. In the first paragraph you describe chemicals and toxins that circulate and accumulate in food chains. Pushing your argument of queer kin, you could even argue that from a more-than-human perspective denoting particular chemicals as desired and others as toxic/foreign/unwanted is a political act. E.g. toxic for who? I have to think of how in the aftermath of Chernobyl the area actually rewilded. In a similar vain, the line between toxin and medicine is a thin one, and often merely a matter of degree. Thus, what is "healthy" nature and what is toxic is not black and white but often dictated by us/humans.