In the works here, the contents of my gut microbiota have been separated away from other faecal material by filtration in order to purify its bacteria. To reveal the bacteria the samples are staining using the Gram stain which reveals the bacteria of my microbiome. The works invite the observer to consider the human microbiome as a complex and integrated human body tissue. Each tiny speck is a bacterial cell and one of the multitudes that I share my body with.
We accidentally left some spent wine bottles out in our garden, and through doing this, unintentionally provided a medium for its snails and slugs to modify. In eating the labels on the bottles our garden gastropod molluscs have edited their human narratives to produce there own art but at the same time they have also absorbed the anthropogenic materials present in the label’s inks. Do these human made materials persist in the faeces of the creatures or even colour it. The major source of nutrition in the paper of the labels will be cellulose, and to gain sustenance from it, the slugs and snails must degrade this resilient biopolymer. However, on their own they cannot do this and thus have to rely on symbiotic and cellulytic bacteria present in their guts. How do these react to the presence of the human made inks?
Just one damp night later the label on one of the bottles has been edited further and one of the “artists” is present (image below).
My own blood consumed by and self penetrated by a bespoke crystallisation process. 200-times magnification, DIC microscopy. Microscopic performance art.
Frequencies and wavelengths made by the microorganisms in 11 natural water samples. Sub microlitre samples. Each one vibrates to a unique energy. 200-times magnification.
