Dasha Plesen
(Daria Fedorova)
Petri-dish art is no new friend to the bioart world. But Daria's work brings a new twist to the art, adding sprinkles, fluffy balls and sugar to slime mold cultures creates a fun, humorous, colourful and magical scene on the plate. Daria's unique practice inspires a child-like wonder into the world of these funky fungi.
Daria Fedorova, known under the artist name "Dasha Plesen" is a multidisciplinary artist based in Moscow, Russia. Dasha studied Foundation Art and Design at the British Higher School of Art and Design, but her interests in medical science and microbiology inspired her work. By adding bright pigments, sugar, sprinkles, and fluffy balls she cultivates slime molds and bacteria with unique textures, shapes, dramatic colours and patterns.
I discovered Dasha's work through my own journey with petri dish art. My six years of culturing and accidentally creating my very own mini masterpieces in the lab, left me oooh'ing and aaahhh'ing at each dish, allowing for a little contamination and extra incubation to see what Streptopicasso might ensue. Inspired by the likes of Klari Reis and the many other art-scientists or science-artists playing around on the petri, I continued these side experiments throughout my time as a masters student too. It wasn't until stumbling upon Dasha's work that I was left truly damn blown away by what can unfold on a tiny plate. With a little touch of pigment pizazz, Dasha transforms colonies into a starry night of pinks and purples and blues and wow.
Her work has encouraged a scientific fascination in a wider audience, and eliminated the initial "eew" that turns many away from microbes and molds. By glamorising the goo, she is able to showcase and inform on an array of bacteria and fungi, encouraging us to zoom in and find wonder in scientific method and tools. For me, her microbe makeovers have also been a call to question human intervention and impact in the natural world. The addition of synthetic sprinkles, pigments and other props are indicative of both the pros and cons of advances in scientific technology. On the up side, the human intervention and use of synthetics to improve and enhance the cultures can be seen as analogous to advances in genetic engineering for crop resilience or the creation of synthetic biomaterials for medical treatment. On the flip side, it reminds me of the ecological damage we have caused and the harmful integration of synthetic materials into all ecosystems on Earth, all for the sake of human pleasure.
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Whichever way you may run with your interpretations, there is no question that Dasha's magical microbes are a true spectacle. She has mastered the art on petri and reminds us all to keep the joy and the beauty and the wonder in science.
