“Inhaling The Spore” takes its title from a fungus that infects ants and the way in which it is cleverly disseminated within ecosystems by altering the insects behavior. With this series I have been examining relationships between Parasites/Parasitoids and hosts. Parasitoid insects and fungi which breed pathogens grotesquely deforming, and in the case of parasitoids, devouring the host. They are presented to the viewer as a Victorian Natural History record, pleasing to the eye, almost pretty specimens. Yet, on closer inspection their true, more repulsive reality is revealed. I am interested in exploring this tension between attraction and repulsion in the works, playing with ideas of beauty/decay, fragility and the grotesque.