Project: Nostalgia is a Microrganism
Year the project commenced: 2019
Year it became impossible: 2019
1982 : an eleven year old girl
the family orchard
her favourite place
the brown decaying wormhole in the fruit
the crackle-patterned apple scab lesions
the rich ooze and swollen cankers of fireblight on the trunks on the leaves
the white felt-like fungal blooms of mildew
the concentric circles of black rot
the sweet smell of mould and infection and disease
the sweet like-nothing-else taste of an apple straight off the tree
beauty and decay
The Beauty of Decay
1986: a fifteen year old girl
the biology room
the layout somehow the same as in the art room… but different
Bacteria. Protozoa. Fungus.
the shiny amber agar
the homemade incubator
Food-Water-Warmth-Shelter-Company
the “control”
Sampling
Growth
science and art
The Art of Science
2001: a thirty year old woman
the comfortable friend-the joint
the talk of impossible dreams
the woman : “…and so I would make a series of garments…but sculptures…with agar somehow embedded in the fabric. Avant-garde versions of historical costume and introduce bacteria, fungus, disease, infection - those that were prevalent to the era… isn’t it strange now how all these considered “cured” historic diseases like tuberculosis are beginning to return? Encase them in bell jar like incubators…
Can you imagine? a sterile room of romantic blooming sculpture garments - that would colour and grow and change… first revealing an intended pattern and then growing beyond my own intention…the creativity of microbiology - the colours and shapes. How they Bloom…beautiful and grotesque and fascinating and revolting.
But you couldn’t do it …it is impossible in every way - not least the danger of infecting the audience… And in the middle of all the encapsulated works a single one that is somehow open to the audience… to be colonised by the bacteria found on the audience… on their hands, their spit, their tears… its pattern a plethora of all that bacteria carried by all those who came in contact with it.
Of course you couldn’t do it. Its an Impossibility.…”
the friend : “.. well, yes, it is…. Here, take the joint.
the woman : “But Can You Imagine?”
2019 : a forty seven year old artist
the instagram message
“…. I would like to ask you if you have any Impossible Projects.”
Artist: Anastasia la fey
Collaborators: Photography by Damian Stephens (IMG 1 & 2) inhabited by Holly Durant (img2)
inhabited by Billie Adams (IMg3)
inhabited by Billie Adams (IMg3)
Original microbiology reference images by Hans Newman.
