An Elastic Continuum is an artistic research project developed by artist Bethan Hughes that forms the sixth act in her ongoing project, Hevea. It traces the story of Taraxacum kok saghyz, a rubber-containing plant better known as the Kazach or Russian dandelion, from the perspective of the women whose labor was and is related to its cultivation. Following the journey of this humble “weed” from the Tien Shan mountains in Kazakhstan to collective farms across the former Soviet Union, greenhouses at Auschwitz to the laboratories of multinational tire corporations in Europe, Hughes questions the entanglements between people, plants, politics and power.
Hevea Act 6: An Elastic Continuum at gnration, Braga, 2024, photo: Adriano Ferreira Borges
Hevea Act 6: An Elastic Continuum at LABoral, Gijón, 2023, photo: Luis Hernando
The installation revolves around a single-channel video constructed from fragments of archival film and contemporary footage from Kazakhstan, Holland and Germany. A series of glass, rubber and steel sculptures extends beyond the screen, acting as instruments through which a multi-channel audio piece composed by artist Diego Flórez is played.
Bio
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Photo: Lukas StädlerBethan Hughes
DE/GB
Bethan Hughes is an artist and researcher who creates audiovisual installations, sculptures and texts that trace unnatural ecologies generated through industry, commerce and technology. Her most recent project, Hevea Act 6: An Elastic Continuum, has been shown at LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón (SP) and gnration, Braga (PT). In autumn 2024, it will be presented as a solo show at the Kunstpavillion, Innsbruck (AT). Her first monograph will be published in early 2025.
Credits
Glass, steel, rubber, quadrophonic audio + 8-channel generative audio, single-channel video, 27 mins.
Sound: Diego Flórez
Production assistance: Berlin Glassworks, Dimitra Charizani
Research assistance: Oleh Sharma, Anel Ilyassova
Translation: Gary Vanisian, Maja Zagórska
Voice artists: Nicola Sangs, Raushan Tolganbayeva, Anna Kin, Daria Shyshko, Halina Rasiakówna, Marlene Dietrich
Archival material courtesy of: The German Federal Archives; The Central State Archive of Film, Photo Documents, and Sound Recording of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Central State Film, Photo, and Sound Archive of Ukraine; Lore Shelley archive at the Holocaust Centre, San Francisco.
Many thanks to: Professor Dr. Dirk Prüfer at the Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, University of Münster; Fred Erkner and staff at ESKUSA GmbH; Peter van Dijk, Anker Sørensen and staff at Lion-Flex / KeyGene; the Tselinny Centre of Contemporary Culture; Pablo de Soto and the team at LABoral; Dominika Kluszczyk.
This project was realized within the framework of a European Media Art Platform residency program at LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial with support from the Creative Europe Culture Programme of the European Union. It was produced with support from the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion Berlin, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, and the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung.
Presented in the context of the EMAP project. EMAP is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
