Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Bio-Art - Painting & Mix Media

Click on image to see enlargement ...

Brad Birchett, Pomegranite for the People, 41 x 48", 2006

Tea, detritus, pomegranite seeds, natural carbon charcoal, etc ... all working together with acrylic paint on a panel. The paint is non-active but at times serves as a base ... for other elements to work within .... you can NOT keep them away ...

Brad Birchett, xSublimex, 45x62", 2005 Tea and coffee continue to alter the molecular makeup of the canvas, as micro-infestations will eventually eat it all away ....

Brad Birchett, Site Seer 03: The Bleu Grotto, Ontario, Canada, 2004

Microorganisms eat away at natural materials such as cotton, as does entropy over time, while freeze-thaw breaks down ceramic compounds returning the earth to earth, and of course, most omnivores love local apples ...

Bio-art has been defined as "an art practice in which the medium is living matter" - Wikipedia. In these pieces organic matter has been used and allowed to "grow" or flourish in certain areas. Matter such as coffee, tea, and even detritus has long been used as staining agents but in certain climates micro-organisms will invade these substances ... and well, the process is definately an on-going aesthetic and molecular (if not olfactory) change ....

See more Bio-Art pieces in the Ritual Function exhbition and within the Transformation series where installations are left to endure climate ... and molecular change ...