There is something deeply physical, almost primordial, that characterizes the work of Guadalajara-born, Los Angeles-based artist Carmen Argote. Argote derives the color from cochineal, a scale insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha from which the natural dye carmine has traditionally been produced. For Argote, it is a material that embodies both human and natural histories of extraction, as well as their entanglements. In her newer works, Argote uses cochineal to think simultaneously about hardening and softening, as seen in the more corporeal wall sculptures made from bundled and knotted organic and found materials. Argote, her mother and her grandmother are all named Carmen, and she sees a lineage of making moving through their hands.