Webs

about cv larks and katydids apparitions a hiding place the dollhouse

Webs is a photographic and installation-based project that delves into the internal and external worlds of a character known as Maribel. Maribel exists in a dream-like world, moving in-between realms of a complex and intertwined web of reality and fantasy; she resides in the surreal state of the dollhouse and enjoins it with her external environment as she moves through day-to-day life with little regard for substance, time, or impermeable borders.

Webs was installed in the stairwells of the Liberal Arts building of Montana State University-Billings from January 13th through June 19th of 2025. Maribel’s life is presented in a nonlinear fashion to mirror the abstract way she experiences the world. She navigates her experiences like a web, transitioning between scenes: taking the form of a butterfly, existing in a two-dimensional wallpaper world, embodying the dollhouse itself, and taking on the persona of a doll or a piece of linen. Throughout these transitions, she often materializes in her external world alongside traces or remnants of her internal world. She sometimes manifests as a found-object spider, represented through textile and sculptural pieces in her webs.

Webs are a representation of a method of moving through the world, as well as a protective spell. What happens when you dissociate from your external environment, and live in a dream-land? Complex patterns of thought are developed to protect the vulnerable inner self from the real world: memories and fantasies are connected, woven into a shield or a safety blanket; nothing can reach me if nothing is real.