Alma Louise Visscher

Artist Statement

The theme/question that framed this residency was “Transient Repositories” or what is left in space after we leave and the marks we leave behind.

Thinking through this question as I started the residency, I was struck by the poetic intangibility of this prompt as well as the questions it provoked to consider ethical and caring choices with our materials and practices and ways of working.

Working with the natural dye process was both the material and conceptual research of my residency. The result of this residency is an installation in the form of a curtain.  It is made of silk fabric hand-dyed through a variety of processes with plants that I gathered or grew. The primary process that I used when making this piece is a process called fermentation dyeing. With fermentation dyeing, the plant and fabric are placed in a glass jar or container for several weeks. As the pH shift, the microbes transform the plant material and binds the colour to the fabric. The plants and steps that I used should result in very permanent and lightfast dyes. However, the purple-red section is made from a non-lightfast or fugitive (meaning it will quickly fade) colourant called Anthocyanins, which are found typically in red/pink flowers.  I wanted to include some of this type of colour, to acknowledge that permanence and longevity isn’t the only benchmark; sometimes, it is also good that things shift and transform or fade away.

Combining this process of fermentation and dyeing, with the form of a functional curtain, I was curious to consider both how space and materials are transitory and transformative, and maybe how that can help us consider/reconsider how we work and make. The process of fermentation allows for things to change and transform even as they are maintained. The plants themselves feel like active collaborators in this process, as I wait and watch the colour shift slowly.

As I worked through these processes and plants, I often asked myself the question of whether I was using the materials and plants in the right way. What marks I am leaving behind in the processes that I am using, in the plants that I am collecting and harvesting?

For example, some of the plants that I used are invasive/regulated species, such as the Common Yellow Tansy. Common tansy is a perennial that was introduced by European settlers in the 1600s, it reproduces by both seed and short rhizomes (underground horizontal roots) which makes it challenging to eradicate. Tied into this seemingly simple plant, are the long-reaching and pervasive harmful effects of colonialism, the influence humans have on transforming the environment, and the insidious effects this all has on our ecosystems.  It is a similar story with many other materials that we use and create with.