"White fields of wild garlic, the sweet scent of the last bluebells, a night sky tinted pink and purple, lush greens within vast forests, trees grown within trees, spiders spinning their webs around me, and a reddish flower moon behind clouds—these were my encounters during my stay in Xenia for the month of May 2024.

While on residency, I worked on a large-scale painting, part of a new body of work which follows ongoing research into material exploration from an ecological point of view. The artwork challenges traditional painting techniques by adopting an alchemist approach. Blending natural elements such as agar agar, flower parts, wax, pink ink, shea butter, cochineal bugs, fabric softener, PVA, and soap, and poured onto the unprimed canvas, the elements merge naturally, allowing gravity and the innate properties of the materials to dictate flow, colours, and interaction, reemerging as a unique nebulae-like surface.

The process follows the collection and preservation of spring flowers encountered during everyday walks in the Hampshire region. In full splendour or already fallen, they covered window sills, sidewalks, and front garden fences, as well as wide fields and vast realms.

I observed bees and bumblebees, attracted by vibrant colours, drinking nectar and collecting pollen—rich in nutrients—to feed their brood. I sensed molecules evaporating into the air, stimulating olfactory sensory neurons. I saw green fields tinted blue due to the synchronicity of the bluebell bloom. I am aware that I am not the one they want to attract, but still, I am on the receiving end. Plants have always played a significant part in rituals and serve as an important factor in a healthy and diverse ecosystem. Their way of communication is highly complex, spanning chemical, electrical, mechanical, and hormonal signalling.

Historically, the merging of elements has been viewed with suspicion, often associated with potion-making, witchcraft, and alchemy. In contrast, divination practices are imbued with hope, emphasizing themes of revelation, transformation, and the pursuit of hidden truths.

Living organisms and their inorganic counterparts depend heavily on intense flows of materials and energy. Our organic bodies are temporary manifestations within these flows: at birth, we capture a portion within our bodies, and upon death, we release it, as microorganisms transform us into new raw materials. Lynn Margulis and Jane Bennett both highlight that these material entanglements are fundamental to evolutionary processes, underscoring the dynamic and interconnected nature of all matter.

At Xenia, I was able to delve deeper into this research while also having time to develop new work. I am grateful for this experience as it opened up new strands in my work, and I am excited to develop these further in the upcoming months I will spend in London.

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Thank you.

All my best

Silke"

Born

1984,

Stralsund, Germany

About

Silke Weissbach employs a material-based approach to seamlessly integrate her ideas into painting, sculpture and video installation. Drawing on concepts of light, colour and liquids, she weaves hybrid material assemblages connecting biological elements with emotions, language, memory, sounds, and images to catalyst unseen worlds beyond consciousness.
She combines traditional and modern alchemical processes taken from craft, mysticism, and techno-culture, such as crystallisation, distillation, and extraction, with CGI and 3D-printing to process organic elements related to the consumer and cosmetic industries, such as herbs, hormones, fungi, flowers, fruits, sugar, formula milk, wine, and wax. These nourished entanglements conjure ethereal artefacts and speculative realms that blur the lines between the corporeal, the feminine, the natural, the synthetic, and the mystical.
Surfaces go deeper than we think – cracks, scars, and tissues serve as gateways into realms of our biological, historical, and cultural roots. Built upon a desire to redirect deeply inherited opinions and collective memories of the porous and malleable worlds we navigate through, her elements operate between compounds and codes. By deciphering information from our past, present, and future, she navigates new uncharted material environments to unveil the interconnectedness of our existence. She challenges conventional belief systems while guiding us to retrace our natural belonging to the world.

For more information about Silke, please visit her website.