Green On Red Gallery

BioTrace

Aoife Shanahan

Solo exhibition

May 25 - Friday July 7, 2023

WHERE

Green On Red Gallery
Park Lane, Spencer Dock
Dublin 1

OPENING HOURS
Monday-Friday : 10am to 6pm
Saturday and Sunday by appointment

Please Click HERE to arrange an appointment

In 2020, Covid-19 spread across the world with devasting effects. The resulting pandemic has not only led to an unprecedented global health and economic crisis, it has significantly changed the way we live. It’s almost incomprehensible that a virus, invisible to the naked eye, can leave its trace in such a significant way.

Micro-organisms are all around us, but their activity mostly goes unnoticed. This work is a series of biograms which attempt to visually represent this on-going activity and make a permanent record of their presence. A piece of film is exposed to a source of bacteria and stored in a cool, dark place for a number of weeks. The bacteria feed on the film’s silver gelatin emulsion, destabilizing it. As the culture grows, it consumes the gelatin as a food source and re-deposits the remaining silver particles into abstract patterns. Eventually the bacteria die and no more changes occurs. The silver trace is all that remains. The film is scanned, a permanent record of their life cycle.