THE INSUFFICIENCY OF SELF
performance, charcoal drawing, photo slideshow, plant, compost
În Context Art Residency, "Compost" edition (Romania - Iceland), curator Simona Nastac, Slănic-Moldova, RO
2019
www.incontext.art
It makes a reference to sustainability as a coveted circumstance that eludes the lone practitioner. Self-sufficiency, although it starts by addressing the needs of one, can only be achieved by living in a closed-loop that includes additional organisms, like plants, animals, and other people. Even when the system is reduced to a minimum, as the project exemplifies, the number of other participants remains high in value, as we must also take into account those who are invisible to the naked eye, like bacteria and fungi.
Bio-ferment is a liquid that can feed a plant. It is obtained by submerging vegetal waste in water. It helps to have the acceleration given by added sugar, yeast and yogurt. In this case, the plastic bottle was set-up by collecting apple waste, found on the streets or resulted in the residency's shared studio, and edible mushroom waste, that was found in the forest. The method is applied empirically and was previously tested in various other related manners on the artist's houseplants and indoor edibles.
As a performance act, one of the artist's Cherry Tomato plants was moved to the residency location, by the means of public transportation, through an approximate 9 hours journey. A couple of days after arrival, the plant's condition started to decline, and then stagnated, for reasons the artist was incapable to determine. Some measures were taken as the removal of affected leaves, that were buried into the forest, the relocation of the plant on a shadier windowsill and keeping the soil moist but not over-watered. The already formed fruits continued to ripe and they were harvested and given away as gifts. A conceptual requirement of the project was identified as to inform each receiver of a tomato fruit that the seeds can be harvested and the following year a new plant can be grown from them.
To comfort against the plant's state, out of slices of tomato included as a salad in the residency meal's plan, some new seeds were harvested and planted in improvised containers, to be taken back, to the artist's studio location.
A charcoal drawing is produced, illustrating an initial experiment on how is best to transport a fruiting edible to ensure the lowest stress. This method of the shopping trolley was later on corrected and improved, by carrying the container inside of a purse.
Mobility and speed are key features of modern humans, separating us from plants, that need, in opposition, staticity and a slow unfolding in time. The project's metaphors draw from the attempt, most probably unwise and poorly executed, to bridge such a gap.
Sample of scientific study on the project's composting trial method
Petre, Marian & Petre, Violeta & Rusea, Ionela. (2014). Microbial composting of fruit tree wastes through controlled submerged fermentation. Italian Journal of Agronomy. 9. 152. DOI https://doi.org/10.4081/ija.2014.610
The ecological valorising of organic compounds represented by many derived wastes from fruit processing through the controlled microbial composting was established as the main aim of research experiments presented in this paper. There were carried out laboratory works to test the optimal needs of bacterial and fungal pure cultures to grow inside different marc made of apple, cherry and plum wastes (chemical composition, temperature, pH, oxygen/carbon dioxide concentration). In this respect, there were used pure bacterial cultures of Bacillus genus as well as the fungal ones belonging to species of Pleurotus for microbial transformation of different fruit wastes. The biotechnology of microbial composting was applied by using a laboratory-scale bioreactor of 15 L working volume. The submerged fermentations of different fruit wastes were set up for the following parameters: constant temperature, 23°C; agitation speed, 80-100 rev. min–1; pH level, 5.7-6.0 units; dissolved oxygen tension within the range of 30-70%. After a period of 140-230 h, the fermented composts, containing the microbial biomass developed through biochemical transforming of marc into natural fertilisers, were produced.
performance, charcoal drawing, photo slideshow, plant, compost
În Context Art Residency, "Compost" edition (Romania - Iceland), curator Simona Nastac, Slănic-Moldova, RO
2019
www.incontext.art
It makes a reference to sustainability as a coveted circumstance that eludes the lone practitioner. Self-sufficiency, although it starts by addressing the needs of one, can only be achieved by living in a closed-loop that includes additional organisms, like plants, animals, and other people. Even when the system is reduced to a minimum, as the project exemplifies, the number of other participants remains high in value, as we must also take into account those who are invisible to the naked eye, like bacteria and fungi.
Bio-ferment is a liquid that can feed a plant. It is obtained by submerging vegetal waste in water. It helps to have the acceleration given by added sugar, yeast and yogurt. In this case, the plastic bottle was set-up by collecting apple waste, found on the streets or resulted in the residency's shared studio, and edible mushroom waste, that was found in the forest. The method is applied empirically and was previously tested in various other related manners on the artist's houseplants and indoor edibles.
As a performance act, one of the artist's Cherry Tomato plants was moved to the residency location, by the means of public transportation, through an approximate 9 hours journey. A couple of days after arrival, the plant's condition started to decline, and then stagnated, for reasons the artist was incapable to determine. Some measures were taken as the removal of affected leaves, that were buried into the forest, the relocation of the plant on a shadier windowsill and keeping the soil moist but not over-watered. The already formed fruits continued to ripe and they were harvested and given away as gifts. A conceptual requirement of the project was identified as to inform each receiver of a tomato fruit that the seeds can be harvested and the following year a new plant can be grown from them.
To comfort against the plant's state, out of slices of tomato included as a salad in the residency meal's plan, some new seeds were harvested and planted in improvised containers, to be taken back, to the artist's studio location.
A charcoal drawing is produced, illustrating an initial experiment on how is best to transport a fruiting edible to ensure the lowest stress. This method of the shopping trolley was later on corrected and improved, by carrying the container inside of a purse.
Mobility and speed are key features of modern humans, separating us from plants, that need, in opposition, staticity and a slow unfolding in time. The project's metaphors draw from the attempt, most probably unwise and poorly executed, to bridge such a gap.
Sample of scientific study on the project's composting trial method
Petre, Marian & Petre, Violeta & Rusea, Ionela. (2014). Microbial composting of fruit tree wastes through controlled submerged fermentation. Italian Journal of Agronomy. 9. 152. DOI https://doi.org/10.4081/ija.2014.610
The ecological valorising of organic compounds represented by many derived wastes from fruit processing through the controlled microbial composting was established as the main aim of research experiments presented in this paper. There were carried out laboratory works to test the optimal needs of bacterial and fungal pure cultures to grow inside different marc made of apple, cherry and plum wastes (chemical composition, temperature, pH, oxygen/carbon dioxide concentration). In this respect, there were used pure bacterial cultures of Bacillus genus as well as the fungal ones belonging to species of Pleurotus for microbial transformation of different fruit wastes. The biotechnology of microbial composting was applied by using a laboratory-scale bioreactor of 15 L working volume. The submerged fermentations of different fruit wastes were set up for the following parameters: constant temperature, 23°C; agitation speed, 80-100 rev. min–1; pH level, 5.7-6.0 units; dissolved oxygen tension within the range of 30-70%. After a period of 140-230 h, the fermented composts, containing the microbial biomass developed through biochemical transforming of marc into natural fertilisers, were produced.