Eileen White

Transmutation 1 - 2023

The propagation area at the Chelsea Physic Garden, is a hidden space away from the public’s gaze, but underpins the garden in terms of importance. It is where the plants are propagated and nurtured, and where the weeds and dead matter are transformed into life-giving compost. This is then fed, turned and reintroduced into the garden and wider biosphere.

Transmutation 1 along with Propagation are two companion pieces that show different aspects of this part of the garden. It is where I based my portable studio during my years residency. 

It was a place to pay attention. 

Using an antique field camera dating back to 1850, a time of great horticultural importance, due to the adventurous expeditions of plant hunters to various parts of the world, I quietly and slowly photographed in and around this area of the garden. 

Using hand-coated glass slides which I made from old charity shop finds and coated with liquid emulsion, images were transformed in the darkroom using a homemade compost developer. The irregularities of the materials, as well as the terroir of the landscape specific to this place, were embedded onto the surface of the glass. 

Converting consumer waste in the form of food or photographic packaging into alternative light-sensitive substrates, before ‘stitching’ them together to create larger pieces, has been a mediative labour of love and reparation. The work carries these marks of making, with many inconsistencies, imperfections and accidents visible. It is a deliberate attempt to imbue the work with material agency and entanglements with the non-human. A leaning towards symbiosis, reciprocity and exchange.

‘Sympoiesis 1' is an unframed large-scale, silver gelatin print created using a process called Phytography, invented by Karel Doing. It harnesses the inner chemistry of plants and works through direct contact. This way of working enables a physical relationship to combine with the chemical agency of materials, to create an indexical form of inscription. Exploring the concept of interconnectedness and the need to address complex environmental and social issues, this work embraces multidisciplinarity whilst recognising the agency of non-human entities,

This work is a response to current research during a residency at the Chelsea Physic Garden.

‘Sympoiesis’ is a simple word; it means ‘making with.’ Nothing makes itself; nothing is really autopoietic or self-organising.’ Donna J. Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene (Durham: Duke University Press, 2016), p. 58.

'Entanglements' 2023 

As part of my residency at the Chelsea Physic Garden, I explored specific plants that have connections to well-being, memory and erasure. This culminated in the making of a publication ‘Entanglements’, a handmade archive clamshell box containing a recycled medical packet, handprinted with an image of snowdrops growing in the garden. The public information leaflet details this plant's connections to folklore, storytelling, history and modern-day pharmaceuticals. Galantamine from the snowdrop bulb is now, albeit synthesised, the main ingredient in the Alzheimers drug Radazyne.

Exhibited at 'TwoFold', Dilston Gallery, Southwark Park Gallery, London. 25 - 26 March 2023

‘PhotoFrome’, Frome Library Somerset, 24 June - 12 July 2023

One homemade developer was used to create these three large-scale prints. The slow oxidisation and depletion in the strength of the plant matter produced different tones, stains and marks on each print. These continued to change over the course of the next two weeks, before 'settling'.