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Microcosmos is a meditation on powerlessness, uncertainty and isolation as well as the fractal nature of our universe. I wanted to connect a body of watercolor works created during the early Covid 19 pandemic (2020-2021). I was working from home as it was mandated by my office, as mere whispers of a new virus were making rounds. I was scared for myself and my girlfriend, who I live with, and for my family scattered up the West Coast. That internal fear and anxiety was matched by nightly marches and protests on the streets of Portland to draw attention to extreme unchecked state violence towards minorities in our country, many of which were, in turn, met with extreme police violence.
The duality of the external vulnerability of citizens under an all-powerful violent state and the fragility of our own bodies (including our minds) during this lockdown period had me thinking about microcosms: similar structures echoed throughout the universe ad infinitum but at different scales (the orbiting of grand celestial bodies within a galaxy vs subatomic particles orbiting the nucleus of an atom).

As the spherical probe in my film explores these ambiguous worlds, which seem to unfold out of each other, I want the viewer to ponder: Are we traveling further and further into interstellar space, or are we delving deeper and deeper into the spaces between our human cells? The not-knowing illustrates a kind of powerlessness, or a relinquishing of power, as the probe speeds on unbothered, creating a temporary harmony between the internal and the external.






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