Kombucha

The Baby Bucha Project

An art object 'dies' and 'is buried' when it is completed and displayed.

However, these works are alive and require the participation and care of both visitors and exhibition staff. That a presumed object has its own agency that places demands on the presumed subjects it interacts with, holds us accountable when we weigh its value. Maybe it can make us more attentive, listening and reading. We see the human, even when we know that what we are studying is scoby-kombucha and we become aware of our inevitably anthropocentric gaze.

These installations of a bio-material are made from scoby-kombucha through a specific process. The kombucha culture is cultivated with a method with roots in China, in a vat filled with tea and sugar, both known in the past as typical colonial goods. During the process, the bacterial culture begins to ferment and creates a thick layer of cellulose material that resembles human flesh. The process is slow, and the development of the material requires a level of commitment. In return, artist Anna Ting Möller received a self-produced material that allows for her creative independence.

Text submitted by the maker and edited by the Future Materials Bank. For information about reproducing (a part of) this text, please contact the maker.