“Our passions are the true phoenixes; when the old one is burnt out, a new one rises from its ashes.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
For this last action I teamed up with Christa, and we decided that with this action we wanted to create a framework for collaborative work in which we could unfold our passion for making and experimenting.
This is meant to be an ongoing action in progress, starting independently from two places in the world and to be continued in Vancouver.
We reflected on our actions together and realized that we somehow wanted to explore a material resource we both would have at hand and learn from each others experiences. We decided to use ash.
Even though ash symbolizes the transience of things on one side, ash can also nurture the soil with all its minerals and foster growth. Same as with ash, this action might have been representing an end, but it will hopefully nurture more actions to come.
Ancient ways of Making – Solidifying Milk and Ash
Creating Casein Glue (Milk Glue) is an ancient and natural way of producing an adhesive. I tried some experiments with it some time ago. That time I would have all the ingredients bought – this time I wanted to do it all from scratch.
Casein is the chief protein in milk and essential for thickening, in order to produce any sort of cheese.
Usually you would use the casein itself as a dry powder in order to make glue. You would then add water and limestone. In this case I mixed lemon juice with milk and after some time filtered the casein from the whey. Instead of limestone, I used mortified wood ash which is alkaline too. I poured the mixture in a plastic form and waited until it was dry. Seems like I was still too impatient, as it wasn’t dried out completely once I demoulded the piece. Still I was surprised ! It reminds me of a volcanic stone.
Printmaking with Ash
Starting with casein once again, I tried using the mixture to print a linoleum cut I prepared for this action. The small pieces of ash, that I didn’t sift made it hard to print – however the process of applying the “paint” would make sounds and was an interesting experience as well.
After that I decided to search for the tiny particles I would actually find in the ash too and “collected” soot by placing a ceramic plate in a candle. I mixed it with the casein base and it turned out really nice!