Hunter Cole
Interview by Mia Cardenas, Colloquium Manager
Interview by Mia Cardenas, Colloquium Manager
Hunter Cole, Credit: Natalie Battaglia, Loyola University Chicago
Hunter Cole produces work that is inspired by science, but lives as art. Cole, who holds a PhD in genetics, reinterprets science through art.
Internationally recognized, Cole’s art includes paintings, photography, digital art, and living art using bioluminescent bacteria. Cole is a member of the faculty of Loyola University New Orleans.
"Rabbit: Stage 1," photograph by the light of bioluminescent bacteria, Hunter Cole
Mia Cardenas: What question or challenge were you setting out to address when you started working with bioluminescence?
Hunter Cole: Back in 2003 I met a professor at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that worked with bioluminescent bacteria, specifically Photobacterium phosphorium. He drew a heart for his wife in bioluminescent bacteria. I thought if you could draw a heart, you could draw a lot of things. I started drawing with bioluminescent bacteria. I wanted to record with photographs how the drawings would grow and die. I showed photos of the sequence of the drawings living and dying. I created a movie of smaller gradations of the drawings growing and dying calling attention to our own mortality. The movie has music I created based on DNA and protein sequence in the bacteria. In 2010, I advanced to photographing people and objects by the light of bioluminescent bacteria including series such as Living Light, Bioluminescent Portraits, Bioluminescent Weddings, and Bioluminescent Nudes. In 2018 I filmed dancers dancing by the light of bioluminescent bacteria creating new music also based on DNA and protein sequence in the bacteria.
MC: Can you describe the scientific and artistic processes you use to create your bioluminescent art?
HC: My artistic processes are very instinctive. I may have an idea for a drawing, but then I get lead to another place. Even when I have models, I have idea which I usually follow through on. I think of new ideas and poses on the spot that the environment and people lead me to.
Scientifically I have bacteria in the deep freeze. I take a little bit out when I want to start a liquid culture and grow it overnight. That is my paint. I use paint brushes or Q-tip to dip in the paint and paint on the Petri dishes which grow to their brightest overnight.
X Chromosome," photograph by the light of bioluminescent bacteria, Hunter Cole
MC: What difficulties do you face working with biological matter as a medium? How have you overcome them?
HC: The bioluminescent bacteria glow its brightest for such a short period of time. They are their brightest overnight. When I have done large photo shoots with models, I have gotten 20 people to draw on 600 Petri dishes the day before. Then the morning of the day of, I have a group of people gluing with fast drying glue Petri dishes on the costumes. The photo shoot is several hours of work. Large photo shoots can be exhausting. I am not sure how to get over it except to get more people to help.
MC: As someone with an extensive scientific background, what has been/was your most important scientific finding? Your most surprising finding?
HC: Maybe this should not be surprising. I thought my drawings would not die in the exact same pattern a second or third time drawn. I tried it with one of my drawings and it died the same way. It was my drawing called “Rabbit.” In the dying off process the rooster of the left becomes a wolf to get the rabbit like in a Grimm’s Fairy Tale.
I also like trying to see how long the bacteria would last on different surfaces. It does not last very long, but you could photograph it. I would like to make it last longer.
MC: Where do you see your work in the future? Any exciting projects coming up?
MN: I had my first live installation of drawings on Petri dishes on the walls and dancers adorned with Petri dishes dancing in Fall 2019. That was stressful. I had a lot of media coverage beforehand. If any step did not work out, the event would not happen. It worked out. About 200 people came. Despite the stress, I would like to do that again. I am also doing these single Petri dish time-lapse movie portraits. I did a series of Bioluminescent Weddings that were staged. I would like to illuminate a real wedding. I would also like to engineer bacteria to grow on a larger variety of surfaces.
MC: Where do you see your work in the future? Any exciting projects coming up?
MN: I had my first live installation of drawings on Petri dishes on the walls and dancers adorned with Petri dishes dancing in Fall 2019. That was stressful. I had a lot of media coverage beforehand. If any step did not work out, the event would not happen. It worked out. About 200 people came. Despite the stress, I would like to do that again. I am also doing these single Petri dish time-lapse movie portraits. I did a series of Bioluminescent Weddings that were staged. I would like to illuminate a real wedding. I would also like to engineer bacteria to grow on a larger variety of surfaces.
"The Light of Prayer," photograph by the light of bioluminescent bacteria, Hunter Cole
To learn more about Hunter Cole's work, check her website
