by way of water

by Moira Bateman

In Moira Bateman’s hand-dyed and waxed cloth assemblages, microscopic views of bogs, wetlands, lakes, and rivers become larger than life. Working at the intersection of art and ecology, the artist had an opportunity to collect and view microscopic specimens from lake bottom sediment alongside paleo-limnologists, scientists who use the records held within lake sediment to understand the timing and magnitude of environmental change. These lake scientists collect tubes that are several feet long, filled with layers of sediment dating back hundreds of years. This mud is rich with diatoms, single-celled algae, whose dead and resting cells are visible under the microscope.

After seeping and dying swaths of silk in lake water, lake bottom sediment, natural tannins, and iron, Bateman cuts and places the silk to replicate these microscopic views, but at large scale. She sets them with handstitched thread and beeswax. Bringing the past held within the microscopic into view, By Way of Water offers a unique way to “see” what is hidden to the naked eye and conscious mind.