Some of my mixed-media installations are constructed with Model Magic, an air-dry Play Doh-like substance. Drawn to materials that are at once cheap and impermanent, I model forms in an almost meditative state, letting their quantity serve as a record of time passed. Individually, the forms are simple and sometimes silly or gross in appearance, but collectively they morph into something bigger that begins to take on a power.

For Invasive Species: Infestation, I modeled and glued to fabric thousands of small, red cone shapes, or sprouts, and infected a museum by inserting them into five holes I’d cut into its walls. Interactive Infiltration began with a few small disc-like forms on and around a public water fountain. Because it existed in a heavily trafficked area, the growth was inevitably tampered with. Every day for a month, I replaced each damaged or stolen form with five new ones. Imperceptibly at first, the piece began to grow. As the advancement of the discs became more evident, the tampering got more deliberate and sometimes aggressive, thus expediting the growth of the piece. Eventually, the infestation crept into the nearby men’s bathroom, at which point it changed colors.