#ourglass

Salt Mine: Resaturated (2018)  

Crystal lattice structure of microscopic tear etched into acrylic and recrystalized with Instant Ocean®

Acrylic, salt solution, gravity drip, iron stand, ellipsoidal spotlight, vase, sand, silk

OurGlass (2017)

Spinach, ethanol, IV bag, volumetric flask, syringe, ultraviolet light, iron frame, wooden pedestal

Perhaps one of the most remarkable alliances of the biological world is the correlation between photosynthesis and respiration. These two interdependent processes are essential to all life, bonding the survival of flesh and flora. In humans this metabolic exchange occurs as hemoglobin, a red-pigmented protein, circulates oxygen throughout the body’s tissues and returns carbon dioxide to the lungs to be released. Plants, however, compliment this living task by performing the inverse. Photosynthesis relies on chlorophyll, a green pigment in the plant’s chloroplast that captures light and harnesses its energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose. Not only is the resulting simple sugar fuel for the plant to grow, but also provides the oxygen we depend on as a byproduct.

Hemoglobin and chlorophyll are strikingly similar, even mirroring each other down to the molecular level. A particularly astonishing phenomenon is chlorophyll’s ability to retain its light absorption property even when isolated from the plant. When suspended in an alcohol solution and exposed to UV light, chlorophyll releases the energy it was unable to transfer to the rest of the plant as waste. This discharge of energy takes the form of fluorescence, causing the chlorophyll to glow red, like blood. 

Ourglass is a ticking tribute, but also an alarm clock.  Anxious drips swell and reverberate upon impact, a meditative rhythm coaxes the abstraction of nature on tap. Not a particularly distressing alert, but a timepiece trophy for the conscious commercial- an aesthetically privileged lure to stopwatch and hold the trouble. Nature suspended and our demands staged, the extra/action imposed.