Myka Baum

Myka Baum’s practice is concerned with the fragility of nature and how we have become so disconnected from both nature and our animal being. Her work is largely informed by her deep engagement with and close observation of nature, ’feeling her way intellectually into the inner heart of a thing to locate what is unique and inexpressible in it’ (Henri Bergson) and attempting to make this visible through her work.

An ongoing investigation into the point at which nature becomes an image is centred on the presence and absence of light and the microorganisms found in nature, which become implicated onto the surface of the image.

In Time For Action the artists placed earthworms onto light-sensitive photographic paper and records their activity in daylight. The absence and presence of light together with reactions between the chemistry of the photographic paper and the microorganisms carried by the worms result in delicate traces which echo their vulnerability caused by man.

Inspired by the worms emerging from the cracks of the paving stones, the artist mimicked this by mounting the work onto MDF coating the edges in a grey colour made from paint and earthworm cast pigments.