It’s a Flora eat Fauna Otherworld
On a wildly bumpy journey to the afterlife, the once-living creatures and vegetation of a tropical paradise are jumbled and fused into grotesque hybrids. They land in a dimension not too unlike their own, but this new world is merciless. Their twisted new bodies are awkward and uncomfortable, leaving them cranky, ravenous, and constantly at odds.
On the shore near the mouth of a dark cave, land-dwellers skitter across lush terrain littered with human bones, viscera, and glowing maggots. A Venus flytrap-bat slinks toward a bony spider whose brain-shaped abdomen splits open into a drooling, chomping mouth. A fiery finned chameleon perches atop a human skull, gripping glowing crystals of an unknown origin. At the heart of this otherworld, a homicidal hibiscus blooms. Its stamen sprouts eyeballs, and its tentacle-like leaves snake across the gnarly paradise, wrapping around bones and small, delectable creatures. The tendrils creep so far that they reach past the beach and into the surf, plucking aquatic organisms from the shallows.
Deeper in the water, an unfortunate mutated lobster-fish screeches and writhes helplessly, hooked on a line cast by a mysterious fisherman, seemingly from outside this visible dimension.
Faith Pruneda is a maximalist, multidisciplinary artist based in Houston, TX, whose hyper-colorful works explore insects and the subtle horrors of inhabiting a human body. Working across sculpture, digital illustration, woodwork, and painting, Faith creates pieces that inspire awe and discomfort, reminding viewers of their own vulnerabilities and physical fragility.
They attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and studied Fine Art at the University of Houston-Downtown, where they focused on graphic novel illustration. Their work has been exhibited at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston as well as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Influenced by classic horror films, midcentury design, and the natural world, Faith transforms animalia and human viscera into vibrant and tension inducing works. This work reflects their kinship with small creatures alongside the disconnect they feel from their own body.
Instagram - @cicada_faith
