Lindsay E. Koontz's artistic practice navigates the intricate intersections of art, science, and psychology, challenging our perceptions of receptiveness to the spaces we inhabit. Through a diverse array of mediums—video, photography, performance, installation, text, and soft sculpture—she investigates the pathologies of emotion and their physical manifestations in living organisms.

In her work, Lindsay employs unconventional materials, including bacterial growths and elements derived from the human body, to create connections that resonate on a deeply emotional level. Today, we will explore her insights on material as connection, dependency, and vulnerability, as well as how these themes manifest in her artistic expressions.

Bio

The misguided assumption of my receptiveness to the space around me is a central focus within my practice. By exploring pathologies of emotion and its physical manifestations in living organisms, I often find myself at the intersection between art, science, and psychology. My work utilizes video, photography, performance, installation, text, and soft sculpture. Bacterial growths and materials derivative of the human body are used to foster connectivity between persons through different modes of art practice analogous to therapy. These holistic remedial practices become decontextualized and made more digestible by creating work that activates an emotional response. In this way, sensing something becomes understanding.  My work often explores ideas of dependency, vulnerability, coping, and attachment, integrating the residual of both psychosomatic and corporeal experiences. Through introspection, I investigate the significant role our relationships play in our daily lives and explore how coping and defense mechanisms can be manifested through representations of the body, tangible objects, performances, text, and photographs. By considering our connection to the environment by means of activity (reproduction, growth), behavior (animalistic, survival), aesthetic (the natural world and human systems mimic each other via patterns, proportion), and function (collaboration), I aim to call attention to “an exploration beyond the realm of the visible and rational [within domains] of the mind—science, psychology, ­­imagination.”

1. Dalrymple Henderson, Linda. “X Rays and the Quest for Invisible Reality in the Art of Kupka, Duchamp, and the Cubists,” Art Journal (1988): 323.

Works

Tears, saliva sweat | 2019

Laser cut plywood, petri dishes, Kombucha scoby, microscope slides, tears, saliva, sweat, Cyanotype Installation. This piece was inspired by the writing project NYC

This work explores pathologies of emotion and its presence as physical manifestations in living organisms. Science as a cultural phenomenon is often understood by the common person through an amalgamation of influences including folklore, eastern medicine, medieval medicine, pseudoscience, alternative practices, and modern-day medicinal treatments, as well as its relationship to psychology, philosophy, and sociology. This understanding stems from factual evidence as well as stories, family traditions or inherited superstitions, and science fiction. Tears, Saliva, and Sweat is an observation of how one assumes their ability to affect another living organism through the presence of emotionally charged bodily secretions.

The power of history lies within the story, the way in which the story is distributed, and its relatability to the listener or observer. Religious practice, tradition, superstition, myth, and legend have all been passed down through storytelling and teaching, including differed interpretation of story or manipulation of the acquired knowledge. Similarly, this work becomes influenced by its connection to and interpretation of experience. Bodily fluids present in bacteria (scoby) have not been correlated to a change in growth, but possibly a change in interpretation of growth. Thus, the power lies in the ability to form a narrative around this pseudoscientific experiment.

Sample I includes tears generated from longing, witnessing the visible pain of others, and over-stimulation. Sample II includes saliva expelled after an altercation, and Sample III includes sweat that surfaced due to chronic anxiety.

A Second Skin | 2017

Gum Bichromate process using breast milk 22 x 30"

A Second Skin is a series of self-portraits in which the wearer is wrapped in a piece of dehydrated scoby (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast). This wrapping acts as a living shield or barrier, providing an allegorical protective layer for the individual who wears it. Though dormant, the bacteria still respond to environmental changes such as temperature and humidity; when worn, heat from the wearer’s body makes the bacteria malleable, allowing it to mold or bind to the shape of the figure. Printing these images as Gum Bichromate prints using breast milk as pigment provides another layer of symbolism regarding maternal relationships, specifically how seemingly inanimate objects can fill both roles as both the nurturer and the nurtured.

Know more about the artist here.

All images courtesy of Lindsay E. Koontz.

Cover image courtesy of @jossfordphotography