Inherent in Orion’s work is a dialogue between art as living and art as dying. The terrarium itself is a living ephemeral breathing context in which the art is held within, similar to the gallery. The context in which we host our art in informs it nature. The elaborate horticultural habitats explore the conditions in which a living organism thrives or withers away, and this process is documented over time. As a classically trained ceramicist, the clay medium has been sifted down to the basic matter and are the product of reduction, which the clay itself felt at odds with. We then imbue this sterilized body with meaning to become “alive” when sculpted to then be left it in white walled galleries and museums to slowly decay and wither away. The medium craved to be placed in habitats and environments more like its home, often unfired and painted in horticulture that would take root and consume the sculptures. Much of this body of work was in longer duration exhibitions, whether in a gallery’s outdoor space, venue’s bathroom, or abandoned building windows, this work was witnessed over time in order to express and experience process of change. It is Orion’s understanding that the sculptures are living creatures and representations of our human conditions kept in the shadows. Anyone who host or witnesses one of these living sculptures has the right to choose what is the art and most alive to them; even more so as the two battle as the process unfolds over time.
