The artwork is one of a series of paintings, sculptures, and textiles generated through a long term foraging and weathering research project called Small Talks. An important part of my practice involves moments of foraging and preserving; being and working with the weather; getting excited; and melding my kitchen with a laboratory. Essential to this is the use of plant- or mushroom-based inks, pigments, and dyes, which arise through experimental cooking and making processes. Artworks created by using plant-based materials are inherently metamorphic, unpredictable, and prone to changing over time. My wish is that potential artwork owners appreciate that changes in appearance are inevitable when artistic processes involve such liveliness.
In saying that, I do my best to slow the change: colours are stabilised with mordants. It is recommended that artworks are hung away from direct sunshine.
Rya rug dyed with:
Brown – Red-blooded webcap mushroom with iron salt
Yellow – yellow onion peels, red cabbage, nettle
Pale pink – kitchen leftovers and peels from cooking borscht soup
Material:
handmade dye on woollen yarn, jute
