During the Periplus workshop in Crete. We were provided with an abundance of local material and bio-based material recipes. I feel that the most important properties of biomaterials are that they set in an instant, and you cannot change or modify them after they are done. All the formulas are fixed within a few seconds or minutes as they cool. It is not like oil painting, where you could change or cover over. It is not like sewing, where every stitch leaves a trace. It’s more like a crystallisation, a brief collision between the body and the nature of the material. It’s fragile; most of them are not durable, and often unpredictable. They flow, constantly changing with the heat.

My drawing is always created in a very short, continuous, batch-like process. I love this kind of no-stop rhythm; it allows me to pour all of my energy in and stay fully focused on the drawing I’m working on. The local materials in Periplus felt like a natural palette to me, organic, full of unpredictability. The process of working with biomaterials perfectly matched my usual way of creating: intuitive, bodily, and based on quick decisions.

I started by experimenting with texture, mixing olive stones, dried olive leaves, wood sawdust, dried avocado pulp, yellow earth clay and other materials with agar, glycerine and water. I placed them into small containers to set. After a long exposure to sunlight, they developed many small cracks. especially the olive stones, which split open in a way that reminded me of tree bark. The combination of kaolin and agar felt smooth and cool to the touch. The wood sawdust had a lovely herbal smell and a beautiful grainy texture. The dried olive leaves curled into slender strips, already visually striking on their own, needing no extra treatment. These textures gave me a strong urge to paint. I became curious about what might happen if I combined them.

I placed all of the raw materials and the cracked textures around me. Once I had heated the agar and water mixture, everything was ready. I quickly poured it into the container, and my body reacted instinctively, selecting, arranging, or pausing briefly in hesitation. Perhaps it was because the building we stayed in was surrounded by orange trees, olive trees, and the sound of cicadas, the first image that came to me was a tree. The humidity and temperature on the island dictated how fast the material would solidify, and I had to trust my instincts within that short window. Under the urging of the scorching sun, on a ground mixed with soil and straw, I followed the voice of the material and the intuition of my body, and completed this series of biomaterial paintings.