Irene Kopelman’s work explores the parallel worlds of artists and researchers. In 2012, she applied for a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, “an opportunity that could ignite endless ideas”. This book is the result of the work she produced during visits to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Without formal scientific training, Kopelman hoped to achieve an understanding of methods in field biology, and contacted three researchers to assist as interlocutors: Stuart J. Davies (forest ecology), Owen McMillan (adaptive variation), and Bill Wcislo (animal behaviour). She replicates the forms of woody vines, mangrove roots, and randomly scattered crab pellets.
