ARTWORK + > Shroud for an Atheist

Conus textile is the scientific name of marine snail with a beautifully patterned shell, also known as the Textile Cone or Cloth of Gold Cone. As alluring as they may appear, they are in fact predatory, venomous mollusks with toxins deadly to humans. Kendler meticulously collaged digital images of the shell to create this patterned textile (a nod to the mollusk’s name). Presented atop a burial mound of sand, the work takes on the likeness of a shroud. But whose death are we to lament? The artist gives us a clue: the patterns of Conus textile recall cellular automata, as in Conway’s Game of Life or Wolfram’s Rule 30—computational models said to prove that complex design and intelligent organization can arise in the absence of a “designer.”