ASC (they/them) is an artist, educator, and herbalist working across object-making traditions to propose hybrid alternatives to binaries such as synthetic vs. organic, and body vs. object. Referencing lineages of kinship and DIY craft, recent works in bio-plastics, repurposed paper, and clay bodies merge somatic practices with research into systems of care, pathology and extraction. Reflecting interest in the connective potential of a handmade gesture to cultivate empathy, contemporary expressions and materialities of “invisible” disability, queerness, humor, and intersectional justice are intrinsic to their work. With roots in the Appalachian Mountains (on unceded Shawnee and Tutelo lands), ASC earned their MFA from the University of Chicago in 2016 and has exhibited work extensively both in the U.S. and abroad. ASC was an artist-in-residence with Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Vermont Studio Center, and Chicago Artists Coalition, and they dream of sustainable, liberatory art and mutual aid projects in Central Appalachia.