It was painfully hot in Blanca during July. We were told that we were staying in the hottest part of Spain at this time and we can believe it. We hear of the heat on the rise due to climate changes, but it is another thing altogether to embody this kind of heat. Reaching 107 degrees Fahrenheit most afternoons, it was hard to function with out A/C (which we did not have). The town went on a four hour siesta in the afternoons, waiting for the night time temperatures which blissfully dropped to the 70s and 80s.
Because it was so hot, we decided to try rust-activated eco-printing without a stove top. My collaborator, Daniela Jules Garza is familiar with the process, but typically heats the water on a stove top to transfer the dye from the plant to the surface she prints on. We didn’t have a stove in the studio, so we tried utilizing the heat of the afternoons to make a sort of ‘sun tea’ and soak the prints in rust-activated water. We activated the water first by leaving rusted found objects in a pot filled with water in the sun for an afternoon. Then we wrapped dye plants we gathered on our explorations between sheets of paper and fabric. Tying the bundles tight, we left them in closed jars in the sun for a range of 2 to 5 days. The following series created by Lee Lee and was left in a jar in the sun for five days.
VOICES 