For the 9th Mercosul Biennial, four Brazilian species of freshwater and marine sponges rendered in wool, hand-dyed with plants and insects. Cooperatively produced with students from VCUarts (who traveled to participate) and artists in Porto Alegre. Installed in two recessed brick "tanks" seen only from above in the Usina do Gasometro, a former thermoelectric plant on the Guaiba lake. In this tank, "Gene for an Eye," two marine species: Xestospongia muta and Tetilla radiata. The freshwater tank, "On Resisting the Separation of the Continents," is here.

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Marine sponge species rendered in wool: Xestospongia muta (barrel sponges) and Tetilla radiata (small pink sponges).
Foreground: wool Tetilla radata sponges.
"Gene for an Eye" installation view. Photo courtesy of the Mercosul Biennial Foundation.
Photo courtesy of the Mercosul Biennial Foundation.
"Gene for an Eye" installation view. Photo courtesy of the Mercosul Biennial Foundation.
Students visiting the biennial looking down on installation. Photo courtesy of the Mercosul Biennial Foundation.
"Gene for an Eye" tank, middle ground on second floor. Photo courtesy of Cristiano Sant Anna/indicefoto.
With Luciane Bucksdricker, putting finishing touches on the sponges.
Dry felting demonstration at the Porto Alegre studio in September.
Phase II, wet-felting the sponges. With Arthur Lang, Francesco Settineri, Marcia Braga, Luciane Bucksdricker and Ney Caminha.
Felting.
Winding the "roving." With Arthur Lang.
Forming the Tetilla radiata sponge.
Making the purple barrel sponges at the Sponge HQ in Richmond, VA.
Felting the barrel sponges.
Dyed, carded roving at the Sponge HQ, Richmond, VA.
Just back from the carder, dyed roving ready to felt.
Cochineal pink, dipped in indigo to make purple. Drying at the VCUarts dye lab in Richmond, VA.
Indigo tests.
Getting the right pink with cochineal dye.
Cochineal dyebaths. With Gavin Foster.
Making pink wool. With Colleen Billing.
Pink wool made with cochineal dye.
Making cochineal dyebaths.
Mordanted white wool soaking.
Wool mordanted with Potassium alum, drying.
Jessica Dodd, natural dye consultant and instructor, getting us started.