Jacobs’ sculptures disrupt. At first, there is a certain whimsy and wonder to the works. Is that toppled chair metamorphosing into a tree? Or, how is it possible for wood to transmute into hair? Slowly, the disjuncture inherent in the object unsettles our sense of the “natural” order of things. Jacobs calls these transitions “grafting,” a decidedly scientific term that reveals an uncanny, even grotesque, insinuation of the works. How did such an anomaly as this object come to be? The answer, the artist tells us through his sculptures, is that modern society has had an unnatural impact on the natural environment. —Laura Addison

Laura Addison is the curator of North American and European folk art at the Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, a position she has held since 2013. Previously, she was curator of contemporary art at the New Mexico Museum of Art (2002-2013).