The overgrown maw
Allanta Mackenzie
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Gallery 3
undergraduate exhibitor
“The Overgrown Maw” invites viewers into a decaying world where nature reclaims form, identity, and memory. Through a slow, haunting transformation, hybrid beings emerge—part creature, part fungus, part forgotten myth—caught in varying states of mutation and collapse. The exhibition unfolds like a living organism, beginning with subtle shifts and ending in overwhelming overgrowth, blurring the line between the natural and the grotesque. Each piece reflects on the tension between survival and surrender, decay and rebirth, beauty and rot. Using a combination of watercolor, gouache, thread, wire, and moss-infused sculpture, I aimed to create a space that feels less like a gallery and more like stepping into the mouth of a sentient, overgrown void. The work speaks to the fragility of identity, the pull of transformation, and our inevitable return to the earth. In decay, there is growth—and in darkness, a strange kind of wonder.
