For just over two years, I’ve worked to bring soil chromatography from a lesser known soil science test used to make small scale prints to a more expansive creative technique. For every experiment and art print I made, I made a corresponding print using standard soil chromatography protocols.
Each of these prints is a way for me to compare my creative explorations with what a chromatogram “should” look like. It’s also a helpful way to track when I made certain prints since I can always refer back to my standard prints to double check dates and samples.
A common issue when making soil chromatograms in an artistic context is how to display them. After all, they’re made on scientific filter paper that’s been cut into small circles and have had an even smaller hole poked in the center of each print (the hole is where a wick is inserted). That’s not your typical wall art. While I solved the issue of how to flatten chromatograms, that still didn’t solve the issue of how to display standard prints made on scientific filter paper.
Pothi books are some of my favorite books. It’s one of the earliest forms of book binding, originating in India around the 5th c BCE by Hindi scholars who wrote on palm leaves. I love pothis because it’s such a simple way to bind a book, and because it challenges our notion of what a book should be. In essence, a pothi is a stack of paper (or leaves, sheets of wood, etc) that has one hole poked in the center. A string is strung through that hole, leaving you with a garland-like book. Though some historical examples have up to three holes poked in them, with each hole strung separately from the others. To learn how to make a pothi, check out my tutorial here.
Given how I use my standard chromatograms as references and how they already each have a hole poked in the center, I decided to create a book with them. While I have been continuing to make chromatograms, I see this book as wrapping up my Land Loves Us project that focused on my Chinese heritage and love in the diaspora. Note that not every standard chromatogram I’ve ever made has been included in this book- only those relating to this theme. Also, in recent years, every major project I’ve done has resulted in a book of some sort, so this especially felt right.
To make the book, I laser cut two covers from thick chipboard (the back of a pad of watercolor paper), then covered the boards in a specialty xuan paper. I started by first lining the center hole, then glued paper to one side of the board, and meticulously pleated the paper around to the back of the board. The pleating was inspired by the way bings, compressed discs of tea, are pleated with a paper wrapper. Finally, I trimmed and glued the pleating down and glued scientific filter paper in the center of the boards, over the raw edges of the pleating.
I also braided the silk string that holds the book together and knotted the ends using traditional Chinese knotting techniques. Though I am considering weaving a thicker cord to replace the current string. Some of the pages have rather large holes in the center due to different sized wicks I inserted in them while making the prints.
All my sample prints are arranged in chronological order, starting on January 1, 2022, when I made a chromatogram of chamomile I grew in my community garden plot. The last print was made on January 24, 2024 using chrysanthemum petals from a bouquet of flowers a friend gave me at my opening.
I decided to hand write the text on the first few pages of the book, to accompany my handwritten notes on each print.
Click here to read the book text.
In December of 2021, I learned how to do soil chromatography. I spent the next two years developing it from a soil science test limited to small scale prints to a more expansive art technique. The pages in this book are samples from all the experiments I conducted related to food and my Chinese heritage. My work started with simple explorations with tea and culminated in a solo museum show, Mari Miller: The Land Loves Us, at the Chinese American Museum of Chicago.
Every time I conducted experiments, A.K.A. created prints with a new sample, I made a standard print using soil science protocols to accompany the tests and artistic prints. This book contains every standard print I made under the themes of food and heritage, as well as the tests I conducted on round, scientific filter paper.
As a result of these experiments, I lesarned that the land loves us. Despite all the harm most humans, myself included, have done to the land, it still gives us its love through the gift of food. Be it our disaporic motherlands or the lands we currently inhabit, the land loves us. It is our responsibility to return that love by fighting the corporations and governments committing the worst climate abuses. This includes supporting Indigenous land stewards and the Land Back movement.
Soil chromatography makes visible the vitality of the earth. The dirt beneath our feet and the food we eat is alive. The land is inside us; it is an intrinsic part of who we are. I hope we can recognize this and honor the land’s generous love in time to prevent more tragedies.
Or watch this video to hear me read the text aloud as I page through the book. Note that I don’t show every single page/print in the book.
Overall, I’m very happy with how this book turned out and am looking forward to making more pothis for my future chromatogram projects.
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