Symbiosis, embroidery on fabric. 2015

The human body is an enormous microbial community - the microbiome - that needs to be kept in a healthy balance. Humans could therefore each be referred to as an eco-system. Using the analogy of the body being like a geographical area, this two-dimensional female figure is brought to life by drawing her landscape similar to the contour lines found on a map. Upon this terrain are the charted areas of the trillions of microbes represented as hand embroidered French knots. The colours represent the major groups of microbes present on the skin, and give a sense of the diversity, proportions and distributions of the communities that make our bodies their home. The bright, seductive and tactile surface is embellished rather than blemished so that it focuses on the positive aspects of the human microbiome. The fetus is microbe free and quietly awaits it journey into the world for its first seeding of microbes. This embroidered work was created using data from the Professor Michael Wilson at the Department of Microbiology at University College London. This data helps to represent the many different types of microbes that inhabit the surface of the skin and how they colonise certain areas of the body. Symbiosis was commissioned by the Eden Project, supported by the Wellcome Trust and Arts Council England."