The Organic Painter

Workshop with Helena Detsch.
Duration: 15:30–17:30

Please register for this workshop via mail: kontakt@helenadetsch.de

In this workshop with Helena Detsch we will explore simple ways to create a fascinating natural color palette from soil and plant-based materials like earths, minerals, vegetables, kitchen supplies and algae pigments.

Together, we'll first experiment with making self-made oil- or watercolors from 100 % natural sources and then explore the many possibilities of sustainable painting, discovering how these self-made colors behave on paper and fabric and what a truly organic painting practice can look like.

About Helena Detsch:

In her oil paintings, installations and animations, Helena Detsch explores (mis-)relationships between humans and more-than-human life. Her series and immersive spatial installations question Western anthropocentric narratives about nature as a resource and create spaces to reflect on coexistence and complex interconnections between human and other agents. To develop a more sustainable art practice, she crafts natural colors from plant and soil pigments.

About the exhibition:

Soil is a highly diverse and sensitive cosmos that is facing increasing pressure due to the climate crisis, as a result of more frequent and severe extreme events such as drought. Soil holds histories, stories and belowground storage systems, repositories of information and traces of past worlds, current developments and future scenarios.

The exhibition 03: Soil. Between (De-)Composition and (Re-)Construction in the Climate Crisis emerges from the project 03: Soil, which is based on interdisciplinary and site-specific artistic research, and is rooted in a collective field exploration of a subalpine ecological research laboratory in the Stubai Valley (Tyrol, Austria).

At AIL researchers and artists show their open, collaborative process, which unfolds in a multiperspective inquiry on soil and drought. This creates a dialogue at the intersection of data collection, scientific exploration and artistic translation, in which soil becomes a ground for research, creativity, evidence and metaphors.

Scientific instruments and equipment such as soil corers, gas analysers, sample bags, and rubber gloves are referenced as symbolic embodiments for the experimental simulation and investigation of the effects of droughts on grasslands and their soils.

With contributions by:

Franziska Allerberger (Geographer), Michael Bahn (Ecologist), Helena Detsch (Visual Artist), Cornelia Dirnberger (Visual Artist), Christian Prohammer (Musician, Audio Engineer), Nora Schöpfer (Visual Artist), Konstantina Maria Serjannis (Cultural Scientist), Johanna Unterpertinger (Musician)