Bacterial Cellulose Timescapes

Contemporary Arts Center – Cincinnati, OH 2025

Personal encounters with a living, unstable material called bacterial cellulose have led to explorations surrounding interspecies entanglements with the more-than-human.  The cellulose, more commonly known as SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast), is a thick, rubbery pellicle resulting from a delicate symbiotic relationship of bacteria and yeast. 

Throughout the body of work, the SCOBYs embody as a collective teacher and symbolic skin.  Together, we collaborate with intaglio prints, performance, and installation.  An essential part of my practice requires considerable responsibility and attentiveness for the organism’s livelihood, resulting in a symbiosis between us.  Bacterial Cellulose Timescapes examines this ritual of care within the shared space of my studio.  Through my provided care, I am in return presented with opportunities of pause for reflection, understanding, and personal growth.  

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I have developed a sensitivity and awareness for the SCOBY’s life cycle.  Each culture grows in a unique pattern, reacting to the changes in its environment.  There is a visceral familiarity to these cycles inherent in every living being.  The cellulose naturally adapts to its environment, molding itself to the shape of its container in an effort of protection.  I find myself relating to the cellulose, molding my own skin to fit the confines of societal expectations of the female form.  There is an uncanny resemblance and intrigue to the repulsive, yet beautiful skin of the SCOBY that is an empowering relation to my own physical body.