Art & AgriCulture: Toning Cyanotypes with Food Scraps & Culinary Herbs

Explore the world of cyanotype toning with kitchen scraps and culinary herbs from the garden as we learn how to transform the ingredients of everyday meals into photographic traces from meaningful food memories. Together, we’ll begin in the garden to create cyanotypes from plants gathered in the garden and transparencies of photos of the plants and people of our greenhouse community. Then, we’ll be guided through the process of toning our cyanotypes to shift the colors and chemistries of our prints, and work with plants like hibiscus, lemon, coffee, teas, marigolds, and various kitchen scraps; reflecting on how these plants find their ways to our kitchen tables to our art, collaborating us throughout the process. Join us to talk about the materiality of the plants we imbibe and create with.

Participants are invited to bring their own transparencies or pressed plants they feel akin to, but a number of plants and already printed transparencies are also available. To print your own transparencies, see this tutorial, though many printing places will print for you as well.)

Photo Courtesey of artist Nadia Bongo. Find more about Nadia’s work at https://www.nadiabongo.com/

Nadia Bongo is a teaching artist and translator.She has earned a Brooklyn Poets Fellowship. Her writing and/or photographs have appeared in Apex, African Voices, Litro online, Solstice, The Citron Review, Taos journal of Poetry, Blue Mesa Review, and elsewhere. She was a Teaching Artist in Residence for Washington Square Park Conservancy. Her co-directed short poetry film, Wandering In Beauty, has been selected to festivals worldwide, and will be on view for a group exhibition at BRAC.

“Another thing we lost is culture. . . look at the word agriculture. We lost that connection. And so now it’s going back to the culture of agriculture. Why do we grow the food that we do?” – Karen Washington

Why do we grow the foods we do? How is culture tied to our local foodways and agricultural systems? What stories of nourishment are you hungry to tell? What creative acts are you being called to digest? In this weekly series, explore various techniques and practices introduced by visiting artists who will lead us in expressing our relationship to food, agriculture, and the histories and stories that shape how we connect with our foodways.

Through various artmaking techniques like bookmaking, printmaking, collage, sculpture, natural-pigment making and painting, alternative photography processes, participants will create artwork that begins to answer the question: Where is the culture in our agricultural system?

This is a free drop-in program. Come to every class to build on your skill or come to one or two that you are available for. Explore your relationship to food and agriculture and the ways our food systems can connect us more deeply to our local ecosystems and communities.

Workshops are rain or shine.

When inside the greenhouse and kitchen we will open our double-doors and windows to vent the space and encourage masking and social distancing when in more closed-in spaces.

Accessibility: Our kitchen/classroom space is wheelchair accessible. With prior planning, we can add a few small mats onto the pebbled ground of greenhouse to make a small wheel-chair accessible path. Our learning garden has grass paths, and the entrance is through a gate with a small, raised entrance. Our tables can be lowered/raised, and we have several backless benches or stools. Our kitchen is in regular use, and while we try to cook without peanuts, much of our cookware is shared and we cannot guarantee a nut-free environment. We have a first aid kit, and the closest AED is in another building several yards away. Drinking water is made available in refillable pitchers.

Our closest bathrooms are a building away, about a one-minute walk. A gender neutral bathroom is also available, and this is accessible by key which you can request from staff. We are not a scent-free zone, and because herbalism classes take place here, cannot guarantee that the site will be clear of any essential oil smells. If you have needs not addressed here, please reach out to Mallory Craig at mcraig@thehort.org.