Horsetail, Nettle, Rhododendron

Silently Recording

Laure Vigna’s research lies at the intersection of life sciences, social sciences, environmental studies and the history of science, aiming to examine matter from a socio-political angle. Her recent research focuses on microbial legacies in order to study their memorial and archival functions and their means of communication, questioning matter out of place, displacement and toxicity.
During Laure Vigna’s eight-week residency at Cove Park in Scotland her research has focused in part upon Loch Long, a sea loch on Argyll’s west coast. Cove Park’s site, which overlooks Loch Long, provided Laure with a base from which she could investigate the sediments of the loch - its chemical intricacies and legacies - as active assemblage and documentation.
This project was asking what chemical residues remain active and how they affect microbial communities, potentially causing genetic alterations and mutations; what species can thrive in pollution or bioremediate it; can we assess environmental thresholds of the microscopic world using non-traditional scientific methods such as direct observation and data collection?
Working in ceramics and glass, sediments from the loch have been indexed, fused or moulded with the debris of the compounds they contain, making their materiality, and for some their identity, visible through the transformation of heat. She has also experimented with a variety of glazes made from plants ashes known to accumulate heavy metals (nettle, rhododendron and horsetail), algae, a range of metals and the remains of marine organisms, glass bits or microplastics, also revealing other chemical residues through the process of heat.
Alongside her sculptural experiments, Laure organised a citizen science group on the loch’s shoreline. This project was designed as a collaborative effort to observe the impact of the invisible flowing fluids in organisms and habitats, aiming to name and map the silent pollution of Rosneath Peninsula (West of Glasgow) and share knowledge by activating memories, oral and local history about matter out of place and their impact. This research imagines a community of microscopic allies, exploring the archival function of bacteria in sediments, catalysed by plants.

Making process

The plants leaves were collected along the road near the loch, dried for several weeks and then burned to reduce them to ash. These ashes were subsequently mixed with water or a combination of sodium alginate and other components and applied to the stoneware sculpture, which had also been combined with sediments from the loch. These glazes have been tested at various temperatures, with the most significant results observed at higher temperatures.

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.