Photosynthesis, Frequencies, Reincarnation — On the Work of Christine Ödlund

Taking plant communication as her core field of research, Christine Ödlund visualises ways for humans to achieve new levels of understanding for the vegetal world. Researching chemical signals, acoustic vibrations, and similarities between the genetic processes of humans and plants, Ödlund’s pieces themselves become living things within the context of her body of work. Past creations feed future investigations, allowing the artist to deepen various theories or methods intended to bring us closer to her ultimate dream of symbiotic communication between the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Employing music, video or sculpture, painting with plant pigments, or creating artist books, she chooses each artwork’s medium according to what will best communicate the information to the viewer.

In her most recent works, Ödlund has taken inspiration from her plot in a community garden, which was suddenly given to her. She first entered the garden as a stranger; the new caretaker of plants that had previously been chosen and cared for by someone else. The artist took on this new challenge by getting to know the plants, forging a relationship with them, and understanding their needs. Her friendships with certain plants became very important, such as with the plant Artemisia Absinthium, which is featured in many of her works, and which she even sent off to have made into a pigment. In fact, all of the colours used in Ödlund’s works are soft and earthy, because of her use of these plant pigments. Working with pigments from plants that she grows herself (like stinging nettles and Saint John’s wort) and with plants she has never touched alike, she constructs a dream garden of sorts out of the very colours themselves.

The life cycle of plants, and processes like photosynthesis and osmosis, are omnipresent in her works, often in combination with elements linked to human DNA. This forms the scientific core of Ödlund’s works, in which she investigates ideas connected to the transfer of carbon atoms, electric impulses in both humans and plants, and brainwaves. For example, the plant pigments evoke a plant’s life cycle, which is linked to that of human beings through the transformation of carbon. This is embodied by the transformation of plant to pigment, and the second life that the plant is granted as an artwork. Other important visual elements are Tesla coils, diagrams of molecules, and chemical symbols. Conductive materials like aluminium are applied to the surface of paintings or used in sculptures, and videos of electric loops between man and plant cover the walls. We encounter a coexistence of two seemingly very different elements, which somehow achieve a perfect harmony in the artworks: diagrammatic thinking, scientific images, botanical sketches, and musical scores are combined as a way to use images and sound to understand complex processes.

Having studied photography and electroacoustic music, Christine Ödlund often incorporates musical scores into her artworks, investigating ways that acoustic waves can reveal patterns, or facilitate the exchange of information. This way, she also evokes the sounds and music that originate in nature, whether in a simple garden or in a large forest. As electroacoustic notation shows how sound fills a given space rather than how the music is played on an instrument, the notation itself takes on mountainous, organic forms that recur throughout the works. There is a porosity here between scientific, visual, and musical forms of thinking, where tangible objects or bodies become musical waves, and vice versa. Through this symbiosis of music, science, and physical plant matter, what is perhaps made the most evident is the artist’s sincere love for the plant world, and her earnest desire to deepen the relationships we can have with it.

Christine Ödlund—Systema Naturae runs at CFHILL February 14 – March 28.