Chemical and Biological Art

Chemical and Biological Art is inspired by the alchemist, the amateur naturalist, the mad scientist, the rogue scholar, and the surrealist. Its mission is to unlock the secrets of the primordial ooze through transformations using chemical, biological, symbolic, creative, and aesthetic principles and processes.

The Silicate Garden
Biomorphic forms growing from a non-equilibrium chemical reaction

A chemical reaction creates colorful growths with a remarkably organic appearance (hence the "garden" name). The process is similar to crystallization, but in contrast to ultra-orderly crystals, this is a self-organizing non-equilibrium process that creates complex structures. A semi-permeable membrane is formed and a bubble is created which expands due to osmotic pressure. The bubble bursts and the cycle begins again. Lyndsay Hogland saw the original garden (left) in the museum and developed a novel method of preserving these delicate chemical wisps in resin as part of a museum's 2024 residency program. This technique of "painting with metal salts" is known as "Indelicate Grass" (an anagram of "silicate gardens"), shown in the two photos on the right. More information on may be seen here Explanatory leaflet (PDF). Photo portfolio at Flickr

Mud Panel
Abstract art from a bacterial ecosystem

A mud panel sets up a variety of growth conditions within a collection of mud from a pond or stream. Bacteria that thrive in each set of conditions produce distinctive pigments. The resulting colorful patterns resemble an abstract painting which slowly evolves over time. The original biological research tool, known as a Winogradsky column, was developed to showcase different bacteria at varying concentrations of elemental nutrients such as oxygen, carbon, and sulfur. Levels of mud will have a stratified oxygen level, with anaerobic bacteria thriving at the bottom and aerobic at the top.

Dehydrated Scobys
Art from a microbial construction

"Scoby" is an acronym for "symbiotic community of bacteria and yeast." When this community is immersed in sweetened black tea, it creates, in addition to a tasty beverage, a fleshy, buoyant structure of cellulose known as a pellicle. Dehydrated pellicles are presented here as natural art, enhanced with a few natural pigments and some inclusions (left photo). The yellow pigment is alcohol-based turmeric ink. Other pigments are locally foraged mineral pigments purchased from Strata Ink and copper oxide ink made in-house. The inclusions are leaf skeletons from the Pond Life exhibit and algae from a Pond-Moss sculpture. For her 2024 residency project, Heléna Dupre Thompson created a series of abstract photographs of some of these scobies and other museum exhibits (two photos on the right).