That which is Natural weaves together the intertwined biological and colonial histories of the Cochineal slate beetle and its host, the Opuntia stricta cactus. Both were introduced to Australia in 1788 with the First Fleet, becoming actors in a broader story of ecological intervention, exploitation, and collapse.
A watercolour painted on a microscope slide with carminic acid—the vivid red dye secreted by the female Cochineal—serves as both image and material trace. This delicate gesture balances fragility and violence: the pigment, born from centuries of colonial cultivation, acts as medium and witness, framed against the sterile clinical space of its photographic presentation.
Here, the Cochineal is not merely material but a participant—an agent in an ongoing ecological drama marked by displacement, systemic intervention, and unforeseen consequences. Its microscopic presence evokes a wider history of environmental manipulation, blurring lines between natural resource and colonial tool.
Through the fusion of pigment, image, and history, the work reflects on the legacy of scientific observation and its role in imperial world-making, proposing the microscope slide as a reliquary preserving the spectral imprint of a world forever changed.