symbiosis 1-6

2022

In a 2008 science experiment, biological samples of the Elegant sunburst lichen (Xanthoria elegans) were exposed to hostile conditions in space for a year on the International Space Station (ISS) and were able to survive these conditions.

Lichens are extremely adaptable to climate changes – they become inactive in heat and drought. Only when they take up water again, via rain, dew or humidity, their metabolism is reactivated.

A lichen is a symbiotic – that means useful for different species – community between fungi and a partner, which converts light into chemical energy carriers by means of photosynthesis. Only in the symbiosis completely new structures and growth forms develop, which exist only with lichens.

The growth and proliferation of structures and objects, which repeatedly build up according to a logic, but nevertheless deviate from it, fascinate and have an attracting effect on people. This immersion in the logic of a system of organic growth and the confidence to be one with what surrounds us are the central topics in this work. Formable textile is brought into a new common aesthetic with colorful gradients in growing meandering movements.

SYMBIOSIS 1-6, 2022, Installation view, yarn hand dyed wool, knitwear, #1 87 x 129 cm #2 56 x 46 cm #3 52 x 42 cm #4 51 x 37 cm #5 36 x 33,5 cm #6 23 x 23 cm

SYMBIOSIS 1-6, 2022, detail, yarn hand dyed wool, knitwear, #1 87 x 129 cm

SYMBIOSIS 1-6, 2022, installation view