Photosensitive botanical prints

Photosensitive botanical prints is an introductory workshop on cyanotype printing on ceramic. After selecting plants found in the immediate vicinity of the workshop space, you will prepare a decorative ceramic tile by applying a photosensitive solution to it. By arranging the collected plants on the ceramic tile and exposing it to sunlight, you’ll create unique imprints against the deep blue background characteristic of cyanotype. Each participant will leave with an original piece that combines ceramics, botany, and alternative photography.

This workshop will thus provide an opportunity to take a closer look at our immediate surroundings, discover the richness of the flora around us, and foster a poetic connection with living things. Cyanotype also creates a different relationship with the image than that offered by digital technologies. By emphasizing direct contact with the material, experimentation, and the use of natural light, this practice opens up a space for reflection on how we produce and consume images. Finally, you’ll acquire basic technical knowledge of cyanotype that you can apply on your own afterward.

This workshop will be led by Fernando Belote (FERN), a Montreal-based bixa*/queer multidisciplinary artist whose practice combines performance, ceramics, writing, and installation. Through this work, they explore language, archives, the realities of migration, and forms of queer and decolonial resistance.

This workshop will be bilingual (French and English). Spots are limited, so registration is required.