An ancient pact between plant and insect becomes a new material.
The mulberry tree evolved molecules to repel animals; Silk moths evolved enzymes to undo them. An evolutionary arms race, now re-staged in a new theatre.
Fibroin- the protein spun by silk moths, and mulberry- the plant they feed on- are reunited here, synergistically:
Fibroin proteins are extracted from discarded silk garments and recrystallised within mulberry fibres, forming an ultralight sheet: delicate, glasslike, yet unexpectedly strong. It holds folds and transmits light in ways neither silk nor paper can alone.
Their co-evolved properties converge into a new composite, a material with programmable qualities of stiffness, translucency, and resonance.
An experiment in how biological affinities might be engineered into new architectures.
2025
A detailed technical description is available for collaborators and interested readers (password required) [link].
The separations of the seas
In Babylonian mythology, the world was created through the division of the primordial sea into fresh water and salt water.
A tiny time capsule- or perhaps still an ongoing event:
Sculpture formed from an egg membrane filled with fresh water, placed in the ocean.
The semi-permeable skin allows water molecules to pass, but blocks salt ions.
The outer calcium shell dissolved; calcium ions rearrange within the sculpture, echoing the calcium waves that mark the first sign of life in humans and other animals.
2024
Measure of Man ( Suited)
Horse Hair Canvas, Lapis Lazuli
The painting's width is tailored to the measure of the painting owner’s cubit;
the length is that cubit, in ratio to the fine-structure constant: a dimensionless number that links matter across scales, from atoms to the cosmos.
Horse hair canvas is a material traditionally used in fine tailoring.
2025- work in progress
I collected resin from Constable’s pine tree and distilled it into turpentine. The turpentine is intended for conservation laboratories to restore Constable’s paintings.
Turpentine is a solvent-highly volatile-but it also reunites and stabilizes fragmented layers of paint: a transparent, conceptual painting nested within Constable’s own.
2024-2025
Volatile organic Compounds II
a by-product of the distillation is rosin- a material traditionally used in aquatint copper etching.
Copper etching monoprint, aquatint.
A single layer of oil-based ink was applied to the copper plate; the clouds were then painted with constable’s tree turpentine, dissolving the ink into transparency.
2024