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Smart Microbes at Jaarbeursplein: Britt Vendel en Emmy van de Grift

Under the banner Smart Microbes, Britt Vendel (Image and Media Technology) and Emmy van de Grift (Product Design) present their work in the container space at Jaarbeursplein. In both their installations, fungi and bacteria take the lead, showing us just how much humans have to learn from these micro-organisms.
Smart Microbes at Jaarbeursplein: Britt Vendel en Emmy van de Grift

The Clever Microbes of Britt Vendel

Not us humans, but microbes are the true heroes of evolution. Because these tiniest of organisms have been surviving for billions of years, thanks to their extraordinary knack for adapting to change. In her work Dear SCOBY, answer me!, artist Britt Vendel turns to these microorganisms for advice.

Britt poses questions to the bacteria and yeasts involved in fermenting kombucha. During fermentation, these microbes weave a white, rubbery layer made of cellulose known as a SCOBY—a Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast. Into this layer of living tissue, she embroiders texts such as ‘SCOBY, don’t ignore me!’.

Adaptability

Vendel explains: “I’m curious about this other form of life – often tiny and invisible – that’s constantly at work on and underneath our skin. Humans think they have a solution for everything, but these organisms have survived through millions of years of change and disaster. Their adaptive skills are beyond comparison. So I ask them for guidance. I try to learn from their ‘ecological wisdom’. Perhaps they can help us rethink health in ways that might prevent future pandemics and viruses.”

Emotions

For Art of Health, Vendel cultivated and embroidered several SCOBYs, each bearing a different question or cry for help. She addresses them through four emotional ‘voices’, each represented by a distinct thread colour and typeface. Red expresses anger, pink stands for affectionate admiration, and green is despair. A sombre grey represents the guilty human, aware of the ecological imbalance they cause by their carbon footprints: “SCOBY, I should confess some things.”

“The SCOBYs respond to my questions, in a way,” Vendel adds. “As the layer continues to grow, the embroidered texts slowly blur and fade. They remain unbothered, adaptable—as microbes always are. They’ll still be around long after we’ve made the planet uninhabitable for ourselves.”
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The caretaking fungi: Emmy van de Grift

Fungi, as the umbrella term goes for moulds and mushrooms, are the secret organisers and caretakers of countless hidden-but-vital processes in nature. They also happen to be the artistic obsession of Emmy van de Grift.

In her project Symbiosis, she created a series of works that pay homage to these million-years-old thread-like networks – networks that, it turns out, are also essential to people’s everyday moods. Van de Grift puts a magnifying lens over the subtle and poetic qualities of these complex biological networks, of which we humans have much to learn from in our ongoing search for ecological balance.

Teamwork

Van de Grift explains: “It’s fascinating how fungi and moulds coordinate things underground. Mycelium networks, for example, can grow to an incredible size. They play a key role in distributing nutrients between plants and trees and even ensure fairer sharing when resources get scarce. At their core, fungi are all about collaboration; that’s their main survival strategy. That’s a wise lesson for us humans, because it shows how we can stand up to disease and pandemics.”

The objects in Symbiosis were created using glass fusing – a technique where sheets and powders of glass are melted together and set in the classic stained-glass frames. Working with glass powders and various glass painting techniques allows Van de Grift to create layered textures and colours, which refer to the forms and structures of fungi.

Equilibrium

“Our current knowledge about fungi is really just the tip of the iceberg,” Van de Grift notes. “The human body carries many species of fungi, and we still don’t fully understand how they function—how they bolster our immune systems, for instance, or help regulate bodily functions. What can we learn from these robust networks and the ways they spread? Might they offer us a new perspective on what it means to be in balance?”