Esper developed from my reflections on the connections between consumer objects and the systems they move through. It began with a moment of recognition; an awareness that led me to look more closely at how these relationships take shape and how understanding often arrives after the fact.

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Using the identification number 7017 from a real calf as a recurring element, the work became a way for me to consider how individuality can shift into abstraction. As the series evolved, I found myself tracing this movement in reverse as I experienced it. It leads with presence back toward origin following a path shaped by transformation, value, and perception.

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Through light, distortion, and symbolic form, I explored how beauty and discomfort can exist simultaneously, often complicating how something is understood. Naming the calf Esper, short for Esperanza (“hope”), became a way to reintroduce a sense of presence within that process.

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The work reflects an ongoing attempt to sit with these connections. It’s not to resolve them, but to better understand what is gained, what is obscured, and what remains.