The beginning of 2024 found me presented with an extremely special challenge. Create an exhibition with Sara Simões for Casa da Cerca's greenhouse. But before I talk about the exhibition, I need to set the stage and introduce key actors. This exhibition is one of the most meaningful things I've done precisely because of where it was and who it was with.
The Place
Casa da Cerca is a contemporary art museum in Almada, just across the Tejo River from Lisbon. The museum has rotating exhibitions, an impressive resource library, a yearly exhibition in the greenhouse, delicious café with the best views over Lisbon, and my personal favorite - a permanent exhibition called Chão das Artes which exhibits the primary materials used historically to make art. They grow papyrus and cotton for fiber, have a collection of prunus trees for gums & resins, an endless supply of black walnut husks for inks and dyeing experiments, and their painter's garden full of dye plants (and others) whose theme rotates every year. A fascinating, pedagogic exhibit that connects visitors to the plants behind the world's greatest masterpieces.
The People
I first became introduced to the museum and its five-star staff while working on Alex Ceccetti's Everything is Welcome exhibition back in 2021. It was through this experience I met and fell in love with two inspiring women - Sonia Francisco (Landscape architect behind the botanical garden) and Ana Taipas (who produced the exhibition). It was these two souls that presented the challenge to Sara and me in January and were essential to guiding the exhibition to what it became.
Sara Simoes is an incredible botanical illustrator, a founding member of Grupo do Risco, and an institution in scientific illustration. She is the hand behind the drawings already identifying plant species in the museum's botanical garden for many years and teaches drawing classes at the museum. Throughout the process, Sara's talent was constantly impressing me. She adapted her drawings and illustrations to new mediums with an open mind and calm determination - including painting with mordant and acid pastes in a process where you are painting a transparent solution on a white fabric only to see the design revealed AFTER dyeing and when there is nothing left to do about it. Raw skill and talent without a doubt.
Flor (Florbela Salgueiro) is a photographer for the Camara Municipal de Almada and the unseen eye behind all of these amazing photos. She followed the key stages of the process and documented the steps and colors.
The Challenge
The challenge that Sonia and Ana proposed to Sara and me was to create an exhibition that showed the colors of the botanical garden through natural dye and ecoprinting techniques, and connected directly to the plants growing in the garden via Sara's identification panels (which were also adapted to braille for blind people to also be able to identify and connect to the plants).
The original idea was to digitalize works I'd already done and display their photographs along Sara's illustrations on large printed panels. Within one meeting, we were already committed to making new pieces, trying new techniques, and displaying original work so that people could appreciate the dynamic colors. When the topic of conservation came up, we completely embraced subjecting the plant dyes to unrecommended conditions of sun and humidity which have transformed these living fabrics (some more than others) over the 11 months.
The Result
The resulting exhibition featured 5 'nucleuses' that reflected on a specific theme (relevant to the museum's themes of the year) or a category of dye compounds. Below I break it down visually for you:
Madder Carnations
The plant of the year was a carnation, chosen for the 50th anniversary of the carnation revolution. Dyed with madder root growing at the museum and my first experience dyeing with freshly harvested madder.
Flavonoids
One of the biggest classes of natural dye compounds, is responsible primarily for yellow and orange colors.
Acidic Plants
Oxalic acid has a magical effect on dyed garments, serving as a sort of plant bleach by lifting the mordant bond between dye and fabric.
Tannins
Tannins are arguably the most important source of dye compounds because of their importance in the pre-treatment process and their permanence. The long hanging panels show a more pedagogic example of how mordant choice affects the final color. All three panels are printed with the same plants but lead to very different results. In the exhibition it is these panels that have the least noticeable shift in color ... to me, they look the same as the day they went up!
Indigo
The only source of stable blue comes from indigo plants and this deying process is extremely connected to shibori techniques. Dyeing with indigo is only possible through a reduction process where the insoluble pigment becomes soluble by removing a molecule of oxygen. The result is a gorgeous stable blue achieved through continuous dips in the indigo vat.
White as the Starting Point & Process
The sixth nucleus was dedicated to the color white, both as the color of the year and a homage to the original color of these materials. It all starts with the absence of color.
As natural dyeing is coming back into the scene and slowly becoming more well-known again, it is important to provide the public with opportunities to learn more about the field. I loved that this exhibition was able to break down the different types of pigments that grow in plants, showing how they can be used and their reaction to sun and humidity. I also loved that it included examples of mordant painting, dyeing, printing, shibori, and relief techniques - giving a beautiful overview of how these different colors can be applied. All while directly connected to the plants growing in the botanical garden. A beautiful overview and introduction to the world of botanical color.
Visit PHYTO GRAPHIAS until February 16th, 2025 at Casa da Cerca, Almada.
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