chromatography

My Temporal Artwork: Chromatograms

Some artists primarily work in transitory media - their artwork dissolves, melts, is eaten, is a performance, and so on. Often the documentation of this sort of artwork in many ways supplants the original; suddenly the photograph or video is the primary way that audiences engage with the piece. Andy Goldsworthy’s work is a good example.

Most of my artwork is intended to be of archival quality - I want it to endure for centuries, if not millennia! However, some of my pieces do have a more limited lifespan, at least in terms of continuing to match the photo documentation I took when I created the original artwork. My chromatography series are in that category, and I discussed this in the artist statement I published in this summer’s Annals of Iowa journal (Volume 82, Number 3). Here’s the pertinent excerpt:

“Over time and exposure to sunlight, the less stable plant pigments in these chromatograms (the greens, blues, purples, and reds) degrade, while the more stable colors (the yellows, browns, and blacks) remain; my Literal Landscapes become more and more sepia as they age.  To me, this is a reminder that our natural world is vibrant but vulnerable, and that we should relish what we have while stepping up our interventions to improve our ecological balance for future generations… or the living earth around us will continue to dull.”

What does that change actually look like, you might ask? I thought it would be interesting to rephotograph one of the chromatograms to show you! Here is a side-by-side comparison of Literal Landscapes: Whiterock Conservancy 1, mixed media chromatogram including natural ecosystem pigments, alcohol, and gel medium on filter paper, 8x8", 2021; the first image was taken immediately after making the piece, while the second was taken over two years later.

To be clear, I still find the current versions compelling! The aging process of these chromatograms unsurprisingly mirrors what happens in nature as plants progress through seasons. They’re currently evoking autumn to me, while their original versions were more spring/summer. I bet a photo taken further down the line would show continued movement towards the monochromatic, so I might repeat this experiment again in a couple more years to try to determine when they will achieve their final evolution.

New Artwork: Whiterock Conservancy 8x8" Chromatograms

I and my friends gathered many natural materials while on my Whiterock Conservancy artist residency - plant, flower, fungus, bark, lichen, soil, water, rock, and mineral samples - which I then processed into a pigment solution and “printed” on filter paper through chromatography.

I’ve done a version of this before on my BROTA residency with the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden; that time, I used fairly standard scientific 4” rounds and only used one plant species per round for individual portraits that also captured differing seasons within the botanical garden. This time, I sized up to 8x8” squares, and additionally made a handful of larger 23x18” pieces; with these my chromatography features entire ecosystems. This post will display my new 8x8” pieces! The first photo is just a process pic, followed by 19 different chromatograms. (I donated three others to the conservancy, Liz Garst, and the groundskeeper Amanda who shared the tree frog with me.)

I’m really excited by this series and am interested to see how these pieces age in terms of pigmentation going fugitive; I have sealed them and hope they retain their coloration for many years to come, but their likely degradation over time certainly fits with themes in my broader bodies of work about ecological conservation and loss. My Buenos Aires pieces do appear to have lost a little saturation over the past two years, but they still display a good range of color. In that case, each round made use of only one plant species; in this case, since there are mineral and soil components as well, I have hopes that those sections will endure even longer than the plant pigmentation.

Whiterock Conservancy Journal 1

On my first day here, I unloaded my car which I had packed with art supplies, groceries, my bicycle, and a small suitcase. I’m staying at the River House, which is a very nice three-story house filled with art and books. I then headed over to Liz Garst’s house - she is the founder of the Whiterock Conservancy - and spoke with her and a couple members of her family for a while before heading back to the River House and testing out the Gator UTV.

The second day I met two of the groundskeepers here, and one - Amanda - took me on a small tour of the prairie loop, the abandoned log cabin and turtle pond loops, and discussed with me some ideas on good pigmentation and animal sighting opportunities. I shared with her that I have had a deep desire to see a wild tree frog for the past few months, and she replied that she sees them occasionally and will keep an eye out. I also rode my bicycle on the main trail loop that goes down through the campground and out past the turtle ponds, and met a couple of very nice women camping on the way! I spotted a number of turtles from afar as well as some frogs, geese, and dragonflies. I also harvested some plants and soil samples with the intent of doing some new chromatography artwork. In the evening, two of my friends joined me as my guests for about a week of my two-week residency!

On the third day, my friends and I ate breakfast together and then took the Gator UTV out for a spin, and I taught one of them how to use it. Then I biked the turtle pond section while they Gatored it, and we met at the top of the hill and hiked the Bluebell Trail together. It took us about 4 hours to get back to the UTV, but that was at a very leisurely pace and we collected a lot of chromatography material along the route! On the way back home, I passed Amanda and stopped to say hello; she remarked that she had seen a tree frog as well as a toad about five minutes previously near a tree and pointed it out. I hopped off my bike and went to search the radius, and I miraculously found the tree frog! He even held really still on the branch he was on while I took him out of the brush and permitted a decent amount of photos before he got froggy on me. That evening we were all invited to cocktails at Liz’s house where she shared more about Whiterock’s mission of conservation and sustainable agriculture as well as her family history - including a visit from Soviet Union premier Nikita Khrushchev during the Cold War to learn about hybrid corn from her grandfather!

BROTA and Buenos Aires Series "Transmigration Landscapes" Failed Tests

I experimented with a number of different chromatography processes to learn which method would be conceptually and aesthetically strongest for my own practice. Two of the failed tests I did were interesting enough in their own right that I kept them, too, though as is evident they use a different technique that proved less effective at pigment differentiation than the process I used for the main Transmigration Landscapes.

These are, respectively, Failed Test 1 and Failed Test 3.

BROTA and Buenos Aires Series "Transmigration Landscapes"

I had my chromatography series Transmigration Landscapes framed right before moving, and so I’ve taken the time to photograph the pieces in their final form! From this Buenos Aires Botanical Garden collection, there are seven framed pieces each containing five loosely grouped chromatography plant portraits. The framed dimensions are 8.875x30”.

These are, in order:
Transmigration Landscapes : Arc
Transmigration Landscapes: Atmosphere
Transmigration Landscapes: Cadence
Transmigration Landscapes: Flare
Transmigration Landscapes: Percussive
Transmigration Landscapes: Reflective
Transmigration Landscapes: Vibration

BROTA and Buenos Aires Artwork Series "Transmigration Landscapes" Preview

With permission from the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden, I have been taking plant samples and using chromatography to create a series of very literal plant self-portraits that also function as abstract landscapes. I am titling this series Transmigration Landscapes. There are 35 of these portraits, as well as 2 test designs that I liked enough to keep as well. Since I currently don’t have access to a scanner, processing photos of each to share clean images of the work requires a significant investment of time, so I figured I’d share a peek now with the promise of more to come!

BROTA and Buenos Aires Journal 2

On my third day, I spent some time working in the studio. I brought some very new-to-me, experimental papers that I wanted to try to work with, so I started off with the methylcellulose paper. It dissolves in water, but if you print atop it with toner (using a laser printer) the ink is supposed to remain, floating, in the water. I wanted to see if that meant I could collage with it and if it would be a visually distinctive method. It turns out the ink doesn’t hold together super well - maybe because I didn’t just print straight black on it - but if you move quickly you can still catch the image though it breaks and twists in uncontrollable ways. I’ve always liked collaborating semi-chaotically with water, so this suits me well. That evening Patricia took me to an opening she was participating in: Art & Swap 19. Artists display their work, and viewers place Post-Its near any work they want to offer a “swap” for - I saw web design services, therapy sessions, artwork trades, and more - and contact info and if the artist is interested, they will negotiate a swap. The opening was a real event, with free food from food trucks (french fries, filled croissants, and mini waffles as well as coffee and beer)!

The next morning, Saturday, I woke up with a sore throat and a cold. I was grumpy about it because it is not my ideal way to spend residency time, but it’s understandable when flying, coming into contact with tons of new people, and visiting an area where you have no local immunity. I rested for a day, but then tried to get on with seeing Buenos Aires. I visited the Feria de San Telmo, which is a big open air Sunday market similar to El Rastro in Madrid. Unfortunately for me, El Rastro is more to my taste; the goods at the Feria de San Telmo were mostly leathers/furs, Mafalda cartoons, pipes, piedra rosada (a pink stone that is the national stone of Argentina, but I’m not into that shade of pink), and yerba mate mugs. None of those really appealed to me either for myself or as gifts, which is of course not the market’s fault. The prices were also relatively high, which I had been warned about. I did eat lunch at a vegetarian restaurant near the start of the feria, and that was nice, as was getting to see the feria and that part of the San Telmo neighborhood! On my way back, I stopped by the Feria de Recoleta, which was quite similar in content but smaller and in the midst of a park.

The following afternoon Patricia took me out on a search for several of the items I’d requested - starting with artisanal papers and spray fixative. Unfortunately neither of us realized what a chore finding artisanal papers would be… due to the ongoing financial crisis in Argentina, some of the stores we went to visit had shut, others had downsized their selections, and eventually we ran out of options for the day but Patricia had one last lead we’d look into later. We then went to her neighborhood to find me a mortar and pestle that I had decided I needed for a second type of experimental artwork along with isopropyl alcohol, and tried to hunt down a shop that would sell me prints-per-page on my own paper on a laser printer, in case I wanted to print more on the methylcellulose paper. Patricia also invited me to dinner, so when we were all done shopping for studio supplies she made Milanesas de soja with salad. Milanesas are a sort of patty, and can be made out of many things but these were soy because she likes them and I’m vegetarian. It was a good, long day.

The next day Patricia met me in the botanical garden to take a couple photos of me for her Instagram announcement post about my residency. I needed to go to the garden anyway to collect leaves for the second type of paper I wanted to work with - a filter paper that would allow me to practice chromatography. Using a mortar and pestle, I can grind up leaves and/or flowers with alcohol, and then the filter paper will soak up the solution and separate out each pigment layer - chlorophyll A, chlorophyll B, xanothophyll, and carotenes. Each plant will presumably have a different chromatography, so the paper rounds will function as abstract portraits.

The following afternoon Patricia and I journeyed to the final lead for artisanal papers: Ato Menegazzo Papeles. The owner is a very nice man who makes his own artwork, does letterpress and printmaking, and had a few handmade papers as well as a lot of decorative and stamped papers. I bought several sheets. Then Patricia had taken notice that I like tiles, so she suggested we go to a tile store. I was excited, as it would never have occurred to me to ask, but I do like tiles! We stopped by one with antique tiles and one that had some modern options. Unfortunately I had to limit how many I could buy as they are surprisingly heavy and there are luggage weight limits. I’ve also heard terrible things about the mail service in Argentina - unlike in other residencies, I’ve been advised not to mail anything back as it likely won’t ever arrive.

Thursday I spent gathering more plant samples from the botanical garden and Patricia and I stopped in at two exhibition openings in galleries on the same block that evening. Both were very small, but one had ceramic wall pieces that I liked. That brings us to Friday, which I spent in the studio again!