BIOLUMINESCENTS
Date: 24th Jan - 07th Mar 26
by Katherine Bouleau @katherinebouleau
This exhibition refers to microscopic, planktonic organisms that produce and emit light through a chemical reaction called bioluminescence, making the night-time ocean glow with shimmering neon-blue light.
Viewed through a microscope, these tiny planktonic creatures are transformed into huge otherworldly beings, swimming powerfully and purposefully through a single drop of water, traversing the ocean-like scale of their world. For this exhibition, Bouleau imagined an alternative existence, where large-scale, abstract planktonic organisms could swim through/peacefully dominate human space, drawing our attention to them with light.
Bouleau’s work considers the points where art and biology intersect, exploring themes of multi-species co-existence, co-creation, care, interconnectedness, and human/nature dissociation. She draws attention to the often overlooked/unseen, and our dependence upon/ancient co-existence with microscopic organisms, particularly plankton and bacteria.
Asking how we might find new ways of respectful co-existence/reciprocity with other-than-human beings, Bouleau reminds us that we too are nature, critically interconnected with every other being on Earth. Highlighting current ecological tension between humans and other-than-human beings, she utilises innovative natural materials (including seaweed bioplastic, wheatgrass roots, clay, wool, hair, cob, river-borne wood, and beeswax), juxtaposing them against selected human-made materials, such as recovered oceanic fishing nets, nylon hosiery and latex.