Interdisciplinary
Photography
©2026 Leo Lou
The Neighbours at R19 | 2025
Agar is a seaweed-derived substrate widely used in microbiology as a surface on which microbial life can settle and grow. For this work, sheets of agar were prepared and left exposed in R19, the room directly next door to where the work was later exhibited. Over time, microorganisms from the surrounding air colonised the surfaces, turning each sheet into a biological record of that specific space.
Three suspended sheets are lit together, each pushing the material in a different direction. One textured to resemble tree bark, another built up with agar scraps that dry into small specimen-like forms within the surface, and a third combining the material with screen printing, carrying a photographic collage printed directly onto it. The largest sheet, showing the most significant microbial growth, lies flat on the floor beneath a glass panel. Under the light it takes on an organic, tissue-like quality — somewhere between a material sample and something that has been alive.