Cycles and sustainability of material flows are a hallmark of intact ecosystems. Kathrin Linkersdorff has now impressively visualised this principle in collaboration with microbiologist Regine Hengge in ultra-high-resolution, large-format pictures – the Microverse series. Some of them have just been shown in the solo exhibition WORKS by Kathrin Linkersdorff at the Museum Deichtorhallen-Phoxxi Hamburg (curator: Ingo Taubhorn).
In earlier projects by Kathrin Linkersdorff (Wabi-Sabi, Floriszenzen and Fairies), very elaborately dried and chemically decoloured plants embodied the Japanese aesthetic principle of Wabi-Sabi, which sees beauty in imperfection, transience and decay. For her, the extracted pigments are an expression of life in a special way. By combining decay and new growth, the Microverse project now visualises the full cycle of material flows in nature. In the microbiological laboratory, soil bacteria called Streptomyces coelicolor are grown to produce colourful antibiotic pigments on decoloured flowers of outstanding microstructural beauty. These microbial performances reveal what normally remains hidden in the dark soil – provided it is a healthy, living soil with decaying organic matter and an interactive community of microbes, fungi and small animals. On the stages of the petri dishes, these organic cycles of growth and decay create growing images of translucent, dead plants that blossom again under the spell of microbial pigments, merging science and art in a living theatrum naturae et artis.
Prof. Dr. Regine Hengge, Excellence Cluster “Matters of Activity” at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin