Ellie Irons

Invasive Pigments out in the world

Five of my Invasive Pigments drawings are in Portland right now, at a show celebrating five years of the excellent organization Signal Fire, with whom I did a residency in the summer of 2010. I’ve just finished packing a new crop of seven pieces for the upcoming Wave Hill exhibition Drawn to Nature:

The newest pieces are a plexiglass case for displaying 16 of the pigments and a color wheel based on the origins of each pigment:

(thanks to Flickr users clspeace, treegrow, esagor, Esteve.Conaway and klm185, who provided Creative Commons licensed photos for this piece when the plants were out of season in my neighborhood!)

I’m on Spring Break this week, and after I send my work off to Wave Hill tomorrow morning, much of the remainder of the break will be spent on research and writing. I’m working on an article based on my Invasive Pigments project for an upcoming issue of wildproject, a journal that will be published in English for the first time this year (the previous twelve issues have been in French). As the editors describe it: “From natural to human sciences, urbanism to contemporary art, wildproject is a journal of environmental studies grounded in environmental philosophy.”  

I submitted an abstract to their call for papers on the theme Broadway Transect back in October, proposing to explore “the migration and proliferation of certain plants in tandem with dense human populations”. I’m looking specifically at those plants with which I’ve become very familiar through the pigment-making process and which also grow along Broadway at some point in its 33 mile stretch from Wall Street to Yonkers.  I’ve been wandering along Broadway periodically throughout the winter months, snapping occasional plant photographs, but I’m looking forward to doing a more thorough urban hike now that some of the spring plants and flowers are (just) beginning to show themselves. Below, the hardy winter annual common chickweed, sprawling out of a crack at the base of the rock wall around Trinity Cemetery, Broadway and 155th (cigarette butt for scale!).

Selections from Flight Lines: 8 Channel Video

As our week wraps up at Alfred University’s IEA, we’ve been given the opportunity to present some selections from Flight Lines in the lobby of Harder Hall. The IEA has a installation space capable of presenting 8-channel video, so I chose four Bushwick and four Placerville skies to display on continuous loops. The shortest is five minutes or so, and longer pieces range up to 20+ minutes, so the configuration is constantly shifting. We’ve enjoyed walking past it as we enter leave the building. We took some video footage of the installation earlier today as well, so at some point a video documenting the whole project will follow. For now, a few shots of the installation:

Flight Lines at the IEA

I’ve been working at the Institute for Electronic Arts at Alfred University over the past week as a NYSCA-sponsored artist in residence. It’s been a great opportunity to get back to work on a project that I started last summer while visiting my family in the foothills of Northern California. Flight Lines began when Dan and I were sitting in my parents’ backyard, watching dragonflies flitting around overhead. I had a sudden impetus to turn the camera to the sky and start filming, to see how much of their flight trajectory could be captured.  I made around 6 hours of footage of the California summer sky, and continued the project from my roof in Bushwick. I started tracking what crossed through the frame and when, from planes and jetliners to seagulls, gnats and bits of trash. 

Since arriving in Alfred, Dan has helped me automate the process of identifying everything passing through the frame using a Processing algorithm based on the difference between pixels in each successive frame.  The results have been startling full of activity (for the California footage) and strikingly elegant (especially pigeons flocking over Bushwick!).  Below are a few screen shots from the animations:

The other fun aspect of this has been using a projector to create a series of ink drawings on watercolor paper based on the animations. Dan took a few photographs while I was working earlier today:

Testing for fugitive pigments

Below, my latest series of pigments. I made two test strips like this. One will live in the darkness of my flat file for the next two months, while the other will hang on my studio wall, not in direct light, but with constant exposure to reflected light from the south and east. I’m hoping to get a sense for the degree to which each pigment is “fugitive”, meaning liable to fade through exposure to UV radiation. 

I’ve read that pokeweed berries (the deep magenta pigment above) were used to create ink by early colonists of the Americas, and that documents written with that ink have now faded significantly, but are still legible. The ink used at this time was perhaps fermented, something I’ve yet to try. I’ve also read that pigments from the asiatic dayflower (blue, above) fade to a yellowish green after a few months of exposure to the sun. The others are a complete mystery, but I expect that each of them will fade to a degree. The paintings I’m working on now are being stored in the dark and are maintaining their color. Soon I’ll start a few experiments with UV resistant glass. Below, my asiatic dayflower cuttings are doing well. One of them flowered today, and I’ve been able to harvest seeds from several plants as well.

Blues, Invasives and Superweeds

Over the last few months, my Invasive Pigments project has yielded a wider variety of colors than I might have guessed when I began. Fruits, leaves, stems, and roots gathered mostly from plants growing here in Bushwick have produced rich browns, pale oranges, reds and yellows, deep purples, and of course a range of greens. 

Looking at the typical artists’ color wheel, it’s easy to pick out the missing pigment: blue. As described on a recent Radio Lab episode, blue pigmentation is fairly rare in nature. I had already intuited this by looking at my own color swatches and by reading about humanity’s long running obsession with the creation of a blue rose.  

Above: The transgenic blue rose created by Japanese and Australian researchers in 2005. (It still looks purple to me! ) Image credit: Koichi Kamoshida. 

The Radio Lab episode explored the rareness of blue through a different lens: the evolution of language. Historically, many cultures had no word to describe it. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, originating around 800 B.C., refer to a range of colors by name, with red and black being most common, followed by fewer mentions of other colors. Blue is entirely absent. It seems that the culture in which Homer lived may not have had a need for a word with which to name the color blue.

As described by linguist and writer Guy Deutscher, this pattern is fairly common across cultures. In many languages, words for black and white appear first, followed by red, yellow, and green. Blue is almost always added last. One hypothetical explanation for this pattern has to do with a culture’s ability to “reliably produce blue”. Due to the scarcity of naturally occurring blue pigments, blue dyes and paints have also been rare for much of human history. The need to select something blue, and thus name it, is reduced. I’ve simplified things a bit here; check out the podcast for a more detailed summary of Deutscher’s thoughts on this, as well as some interesting takes on another obvious blue presence in our lives: the sky.

Naturally, I’ve been interested in the possibility of remedying this lack of blue in my Invasive Pigment palette. 

A few weeks ago, I came across a crop of asiatic dayflower growing along the edges of Linden Hill Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens. The plant’s tiny flowers, each of which blooms for only a day, are emphatically, unmistakeably (at least to my eyes) blue.

Discovering a blue blossom does not necessarily mean that processing it will result in blue pigment. Bright green paulownia leaves have given me my richest, darkest brown, and pink lady’s thumb blossoms yield a pale purplish-gray. Even so, I was cautiously optimistic as I walked the edges of the cemetery, plucking blossoms where they sprawled outside the fence and sprouted from cracks in the pavement. Back in the studio, I separated the blue petals from the yellow and maroon stamens and pollen. 

Next, I piled the petals into my mortar, added a drop of gum arabic and ground them into a paste. I was delighted to find that the petals broke down into a deep azure that spread across my mortar and pestle in streaks. After straining and mulling, the new pigment mixture still maintained its color, so I set it aside to cure, fingers crossed. When I returned to the studio the next day, I tested it and found that even a single layer from a wet brush produced a lovely pale blue:

Since then, I’ve been researching the evolution and migration of asiatic dayflower, and have discovered some interesting history: in its native range it was once used as a pigment for coloring woodblock prints and dying paper. Japanese Ukiyo-e prints of the 18th and 19th century are believed to contain pigment from the dayflower variety Commelina communis var. hortensis, which was cultivated widely before it was replaced by synthetic Prussian blue.

Above: Ukiyo-e woodcut by Suzuki Harunobu. According to Wikipedia, the “the blue pigment used on the kimono is believed to be aigami made from petals of the Asiatic dayflower…”

In addition to its beautiful pigment, asiatic dayflower has another remarkable quality: it seems to be one of a handful of naturally glyphosate resistant plants. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, has been added to agricultural fields in increasing volumes since the advent of Roundup Ready corn and soybean crops in the mid 90s. Pressure on weed populations in agricultural settings has revealed a subset of plants that have pre-existing or newly evolved tolerance for glyphosate-based pesticides.  Have you seen the stories of six foot high, combine breaking “superweeds”?  Below, glyphosate resistant Palmer Amaranth on a study plot in Arkansas:

Glyphosate resistant plants have free reign in many corn and soybean fields because their other weed competitors have been poisoned out of existence. Paralleling the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria, glyphosate treatment of Roundup Ready fields selects for stronger and more resistant weeds with each generation.  After a little research, it seems that in addition to being considered invasive by many states, my little blue flower is well on its way to becoming a “superweed”.

Below, a dayflower blooming in my studio:

Color chips

Here is how my most recent invasive pigments look on paper. Most of the reds, yellows and purples are derived from berries, the rest come from leaves and stems: 

Next I’m hoping to try some roots. Redroot pigweed is a good possibility, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it growing around Bushwick. It’s been a dry week here, though, so I need to get out and harvest before everything green dries up or gets pulled out by conscientious weed pullers.  Below, a vigorous patch of Bushwick greenery growing in what used to be a street tree planter, and below that, a healthy Morrow’s honeysuckle in the peak of fruiting. This plant is producing orange berries, but right around the bend there was a plant producing the more typical red berry.

Expanded Palette

After recent collecting trips to Forest Park in Queens and Glimmerglass State Park in upstate, my collection of invasive pigments has expanded to more than fifteen. Below, a selection of current pigments displayed in deep-well slides (typically used for microscopy, but perfect for storing and displaying paint!):

Top row, right to left: Morrow’s Honeysuckle (red berries), Marrow’s Honeysuckle (leaves), Dandelion (leaves), Spotted Knapweed (blossoms), Lady’s Thumb (blossoms, stems)

Middle row, right to left: Garlic Mustard (leaves), Jewelweed (stems/flowers), Marrow’s Honeysuckle (orange berries), Princess Tree (leaves), Lady’s Thumb (leaves)

Bottom row, right to left: Oriental Bittersweet (immature berries), Oriental Bittersweet (mature berries), Pokeweed (berries), Barberry (dried leaves), Autumn Olive (fruit)

And below, a sampling of how the finished paints look when applied to paper:

Wild Black Cherry Pigment

My Invasive Pigments project has expanded to include species native to North America but considered invasive elsewhere. August is a great time to gather berries and other fruits, and (with the help of Peter Del Tredici’s Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast) I’ve discovered several fruit bearing plants that are native here but considered invaders in other locales.

The all-American Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) has a native range extending across the eastern half of North America, from the mountains of Guatemala in the south to Nova Scotia in the north. The species has been spreading rapidly in Europe over the last century. Around 1630, the first specimen arrived in Paris, brought intentionally as an ornamental tree for gardens and boulevards. It was later tested for timber production in Central Europe, but never really worked out. It did, however, manage to become naturalized, and by the early 20th century it had begun its spread across the European landscape. 

Prunus serotina is described as a pioneer species, meaning it tends to be among the first to move into compromised or disturbed habitats. In the Eastern United States it is often found growing in vacant lots, empty fields, and along the unkempt borders of suburban parks. Topping out at around 40 meters (130 feet), it can be a commanding presence in the urban and suburban ecosystem. In its invasive range it tends to be smaller (no more than 20 meters) and often malformed due to fungal infection. According to NOBANIS (Northern European and Baltic Network on Invasive Species), the species is most problematic in Central Europe, where it’s blamed for reducing biodiversity in coniferous and mixed coniferous forests and for encroaching on delicate ecosystems like heath, grasslands, and bogs. It’s commonly known in Germany as the “forest pest” but evidence of its deleterious impact is not generally well documented. The whole plant is known to contain cyanic acid (as do other drupe producing trees like apricots and plums) which can be poisonous to livestock. 

Below, a topographical exploration of the spread of Prunus serotina. Native and invasive ranges are painted with pigments extracted from the fruit of samples gathered at Great Kills Park in Staten Island. See a larger version here.

New Work from the SVA Nature & Tech Lab

I just completed my residency in “Interdisciplinary Practices in Bio-Art” at the School of Visual Arts. Their brand new Nature and Technology Lab is still growing and evolving, but already has lots of great tools, and attracted an excellent community of artists the first time around. Below is a survey of the work I completed while in residence. Much of it is still in the prototype and/or draft phase, but I’ve got some good momentum going and a few chunks of free time before my teaching schedule ramps up in late August.

Bio-sorption, Remediation, and Displacement:
I worked in the metal shop a few days a week during the residency, building a series of welded steel Purification Racks for my Bio-sorption Displacement Experiments. These are sculptural structures designed to hold a variety of vertically stacked found and modified plastic bottles.

The top-most vessel accepts a solution of polluted water gathered in the field combined with a powder of a bio-sorptive medicinal plant (below, Senna Leaf, or Cassia auriculata). This solution rests for up to five hours before being drained, via valves, funnels and gravity, through a series of filters.

The resulting liquid collected at the bottom of each structure has theoretically passed off a portion of the heavy metals and phosphates common in industrial and agricultural waste waters to the bio-sorptive plant matter (see M. Divya Jyothi, K. Rohini Kiran and K. Ravindhranath, Phosphate pollution control in waste waters using new bio-sorbents).

The water may be cleaner, but the process is one of displacement, not alchemy. The toxins remain, but they are bound up in plant matter rather than water.  Laboratory tests for phosphates and heavy metals will be required to determine the actual effects of this process as I am executing it, but in the meantime I am interested in the metaphorical implications of transference versus transformation in the context of bioremediation.

Invasive Plants and Fugitive Pigments
I also continued work on my Invasive Pigment Project, building a rack to hold my algae bioreactors. I’m on the hunt for more didymo, aka “rock snot” to culture in them. Preliminary didymo portrait below.

The pigments I’ve been creating are likely to be highly fugitive (fade with exposure to UV light), so I plan to display the portraits in wall-mounted archival specimen boxes. Viewers will be invited to flip a switch to illuminate each portrait individually. I’m interested in the contrast between the hardy, “noxious” qualities of highly successful invasive plants and the fragility of the portraits I’m creating.

Microscopy and Plastic Pollution:
Finally, I spent a good deal of time exploring the NAT Lab’s microscopes, which included a dissecting scope for larger specimens, a compound scope with four objectives ranging from 4x to 100x, and an inverted scope for viewing specimens from below. The views through these microscopes were thrilling, and compounded by the fact that each could be adapted to support a digital SLR camera. The following video, still in process, working title Phytoplastic, was created using the inverted scope at 10x magnification. It follows the degradation of a microscopic phytoplankton habitat through the addition of common household products. A teaspoon of plastic particles, a single drop of bleach, a dot of dish soap, and a sprinkling of potting soil transform an ecosystem over a period of minutes. Click below to watch on vimeo. Sound design is still in the works, so it’s best watched with the volume on mute, for now. Now with sound, mostly gathered along the Hudson River:

“Natural” (& Invasive) Pigments

One of the projects I’m working at SVA’s Nature & Technology Lab  is the extraction of pigments from plants for use in homemade watercolor paints. Here are some of the current results. The ultimate goal is to harvest and process non-native species specifically, and create an “invasive color palette”  of sorts, from which I’ll draw to make a series of portraits of the invaders. Pigments below are derived from locally gathered, studio-cultured green algae, the leaves of the Ailanthus tree, and grocery-store grade strawberries and blueberries. Extracted pigments are mixed with gum arabic, a gum harvested from certain species of Acacia.

The process I’m using right now also results in separating the DNA from the rest of the plant. Below, the white strings floating to the surface are strawberry DNA. Apparently strawberries have long DNA (a big genome?) so they yield more DNA that most other plants.