JULIE WOLFE

Green Room 434 raises environmentally relevant topics in the broader context of Art and Science. This systematic collection serves as a live laboratory of glass vessels filled with natural organic pigments, industrial chemicals, biological stains used for histology, as well as samples taken from local and national waterways, some of which are heavily polluted. These are displayed with natural plant and animal extractions such as squid ink, cochineal bugs, kamala, beet juice and alkanet.

 

While the water vessels present a dazzling array of light and color, the installation will change over the duration of the exhibition as the water and matter settle into varying stages of decomposition, oxidation and shades of color. Many of the vessels will be connected by tubing and will share a common environment, each sample being affected by its co-habitant. These processes become the integral meaning and functional purpose of the live laboratory.

 

Within the context of Art and Science and Wolfe’s use of gathering and reordering to generate new associations, History of Nature presents a thoughtful interaction between text and image. Wolfe creates a visual vocabulary of codes on found book pages with a metaphorical and literal lightness. The graphic symbols are simple reactions to the existing text and often mock science textbook’s use of equations and directional lines. Many of these codes are then used in larger, more abstract drawings and paintings.