Work samples

  • Growth
    Growth
    Growth, 2023, Mold spores on wood, 15' I gather microorganisms from various sources such as the air, soil, plants, trees, and humans. Then, I create a synthetic environment where they can thrive. The microorganisms grow on specially prepared wooden boards that allow them to leave behind unique colors, textures, and shapes as the mold spores germinate. As a result, abstract images are formed on these boards over time. The microorganisms gradually become visible and move from the microscopic to the visual world.
  • Bordered World
    Bordered World
    Bordered World, Evolving mold in 2500 Petri dishes at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY, 2014-15 Bordered World is a project that aims to explore social issues by using the competition for resources, territorial wars and struggle for power among living organisms as references. In this project, I use living entities such as fungus and mold to recreate observable interactions and conflicts across the picture surface. The outcomes of these interactions reveal boundaries, edges, and distinctive forms, thus highlighting the fundamental, underlying social dilemmas and principles of our existence. In Bordered World, microbes compete for restricted vital resources, which makes them dominate a particular area, become invasive and endanger others. When they share the same living platform, a conflict for resources arises, leading to a borderline. The behaviors of the microorganisms resemble human actions and motives, making them metaphors for war and the human predicament. By visually representing the world map, Bordered World creates a symbolic representation of how human actions have led to conflicts and the struggle for power and control over resources. "In Selin Balci’s bio-art installation Bordered World, 2,500 Petri dishes compose a three-dimensional kaleidoscopic world map representing the universal struggle for survival and dominance. Within each hand “painted” Petri dish, live molds and fungi are in an observable battle for limited resources. Distinctive borders slowly form and new colonies develop during this microscopic feud." Smack Mellon Curator
  • Fertile Faces (Jo Cosme)
    Fertile Faces (Jo Cosme)
    Fertile Faces (Jo Cosme), 2022, Mold spores on Polaroid covered with epoxy, 4.233 x 3.483 inches In the art project titled "Fertile Soils", I collaborated with resident artists from Mass MoCA and Istanbul Art Residency to create a unique artwork. I collected samples from each artist's body and took their polaroid portraits which I then reconstructed using their mold spores. By doing this, I was able to highlight each artist's unique microbiome and how it transformed their portrait into a new reality. The interactions between the microorganisms that reside within us and their natural form created a new identity of the artists. I made the invisible visible by using distinct colors and forms to represent the various microorganisms, allowing us to see the unseen inhabitants that exist within us.
  • 3_1.jpg
    3_1.jpg
    Contamination '85', 2023, Mold spores on boards covered with epoxy resin, 20' I use live microscopic mold that leaves physical inscriptions by direct contact on the surface of a paper or board, which creates a living platform. In the Contamination Series, the surface of each panel is laced with graceful, brilliant mold until the entire surface is covered and patterned with circular borders.

About Selin

Anne Arundel County

Selin Balci is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher. Her artistic practice combines scientific equipment and biological mediums with traditional art materials. Selin’s work is classified as bio-art, a new direction in contemporary art that employs living organisms. The marriage of her formal science and art education let her exploit this relatively new practice. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Maryland, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from West Virginia University… more

Biological materials in my work

I am an interdisciplinary artist. My projects merge traditional art practice with scientific materials and biological mediums such as mold spores. I make the invisible micro-organisms around us visible and allow us to see the micro-world physically.

I explore invisible organisms and create visual and observable interactive biological landscapes. I isolate and use mold spores collected from my surroundings to make the invisible microbiome visible. As seen in my projects, I collect mold spores from the air, soil, plants, trees, and humans. I incubate them in a synthetic but habitable environment to witness living organisms’ interactions, struggles, and conflicts across the picture surface. During germination, the mold spores physically imprint their color, texture, and shape on the surface of the panels, which is the living platform. Once completed, microorganisms transition from the microworld to the macroworld and appear physically. Mold spores draw an abstract picture as they transform into a living paint agent.

  • Mold spores in Petri dishes
    Mold spores in Petri dishes
    My work use the mold spores collected from my surroundings to make the invisible microbiome visible while documenting, preserving, and creating a historical record of microbial life existing around me. I create large-scale installations formed by microorganisms on different-sized panels. These panels later assemble to construct an abstract landscape. I isolate these organisms from soil, plants, and trees. I incubate them in a synthetic but habitable environment where I witness living organisms' interactions, struggles, and conflicts across the picture surface. When germinating, mold spores physically inscribe their colors and form on the surface of a panel, which is the living platform. Once the work is completed, microorganisms shift from the micro-world to the macro-world and have a physical appearance. They serve as a painting agent where I make the invisible landscape, visible.
  • Mold spores in Petri dishes
    Mold spores in Petri dishes
    My microbiology background influences my artwork. My previous studies in research laboratories focused on pathogen biology. We asked questions such as to how they exist, interact with each other, and impact our environment. I apply the same acute scientific laboratory practice to create my artwork. I research simple living organisms in a laboratory environment and record the manners in which the microbes interact with one another in a Petri dish, as well as the colors and aesthetics those interactions produce.
  • Close-up mold spores on paper
    Close-up mold spores on paper
    Because of their microscopic size, we don’t commonly notice them and therefore they represent largely an unseen world. Growth media, a food source made of potato is used as a base to create a living platform for the microbes I grow. In other words, I create a ‘world’ for them and then let them live with their own rules.
  • Close-up mold spores on paper
    Close-up mold spores on paper
    When they are cultured in growth media they appear in different colors, because of the pigments in their body and secretion of compounds that change the color of the growth media. Hence, they become visible.
  • Close up mold spores on paper
    Close up mold spores on paper
  • Close up mold spores on paper
    Close up mold spores on paper
  • Close up mold spores on paper
    Close up mold spores on paper
  • Close up mold spores on paper
    Close up mold spores on paper
  • Selin Balci at Istanbul Art Residency
  • 2019 Baker Artist Awards - Selin Balci - Mary Sawyers BakerAwardee

Growth

Growth, 2023, Mold spores on wood, 15'

I collect microorganisms from various sources, including the air, soil, plants, trees, and humans, and create a synthetic environment where they can grow. The microorganisms will grow on specifically prepared wooden boards. As the mold spores germinate, they leave behind unique colors, textures, and shapes on the boards, forming an abstract picture. Over time, the microorganisms become visible and move from the microscopic world to the visual world. This allows me to observe the interactions, struggles, and conflicts between living organisms as they develop on the surface. I plan to create an installation featuring boards with visible microbial growth, representing the microbiome surrounding me.

Microorganisms play a crucial role in various aspects of our lives. These tiny life forms involve many vital processes, such as nutrient cycling, decomposition, and fermentation. They also contribute to the maintenance of soil fertility, the production of food and medicine, and the regulation of our immune system. Without microorganisms, our world would be vastly different and unsustainable. The project's primary objective is to increase awareness about the microbial world surrounding us by giving these tiny organisms a tangible presence. By creating visual representations of microorganisms, we can recognize the microbial communities that coexist with us, even though they are typically invisible. This knowledge can be instrumental in protecting the environment by helping us know microorganisms' vital role.

  • Growth
    Growth
    Growth 2023 Mold spores on wood 15'
  • Growth
    Growth
    Growth 2023 Mold spores on wood 15'
  • Growth
    Growth
    Growth 2023 Mold spores on wood 15'
  • Growth
    Growth
    Growth 2023 Mold spores on wood 15'

Echoes of Nature

Echoes of Nature
2023
Documentation of Mold spores
1:51 min
 

My recent focus has been on human impacts on nature. These impacts can be profound, ranging from environmental changes that adversely influence biodiversity to climate change. Echoes of Nature vividly portrays the harmful impact of environmental issues on the planet. I started by taking a Polaroid photo of a landscape, which served as the foundation for the project. To bring attention to the issue, I intentionally added mold spores from the exact location to the environment to slowly destroy the unique Polaroid landscape. A time-lapse video was created to show a week's destruction in just two minutes. The video also features an alarm sound, slowed down to remind us of the urgent need for action to protect our planet. Echoes of Nature is a powerful call to action, urging us to take responsibility for the environment and work towards a sustainable future.

  • Echoes of The Nature
    2023 Documentation of Mold spores 1:51 min My recent focus has been on human impacts on nature. These impacts can be profound, ranging from environmental changes that adversely influence biodiversity to climate change. Echoes of Nature vividly portrays the harmful impact of environmental issues on the planet. I started by taking a Polaroid photo of a landscape, which served as the foundation for the project. To bring attention to the issue, I intentionally added mold spores from the exact location to the environment to slowly destroy the unique Polaroid landscape. A time-lapse video was created to show a week's destruction in just two minutes. The video also features an alarm sound, slowed down to remind us of the urgent need for action to protect our planet. Echoes of Nature is a powerful call to action, urging us to take responsibility for the environment and work towards a sustainable future.
  • Mass MoCA Landscape
    Mass MoCA Landscape
    Mold spores collected from Mass MoCA residency, 32 sec, 2022

Contamination Series, 2019-2023

I use live microscopic mold that leaves physical inscriptions by direct contact on the surface of a paper or board, which creates a living platform. In the Contamination Series, the surface of each panel is laced with graceful, brilliant mold until the entire surface is covered and patterned with circular borders. Then, I assembled these forms and shapes that mold produced to create various visual references for natural and human-impacted landscapes. The forms have similarities to human-induced activities on the landscape. They create territories, boundaries, and borderlines, creating conflicts on the picture surface.

"Balci gives living microbes a place to grow and organize themselves on specially prepared plates. The microorganisms, which normally are invisible to the naked eye, are made visible in these conditions. They create maps of “territories” as they battle for food sources, and their behavior is disturbingly parallel to many scenarios of human conflict. The artist organizes and assembles the landscapes or maps resulting from these natural migrations into abstract compositions limited in tonal variation but elegant in form."

by Claudia Rousseau, Gazette.net, September 18, 2013. 
 


 

  • Contamination '85'
    Contamination '85'
    Contamination '85' 2023 Mold spores on boards covered with epoxy resin 20'
  • Contamination '85'
    Contamination '85'
    Contamination '85' 2023 Mold spores on boards covered with epoxy resin 20'
  • Contamination '85'
    Contamination '85'
    Contamination '85' 2023 Mold spores on boards covered with epoxy resin 20'
  • Colony '50'
    Colony '50'
    Colony '50', 2021, Mold spores on panels covered with resin, 8x9ft At Hamiltonian Gallery, Washington DC I use live microscopic mold that leaves physical inscriptions by direct contact on the surface of a paper or board, which creates a living platform. In Contamination Series, the surface of each panel is laced with graceful, brilliant mold until the entire surface is covered and patterned with circular borders
  • Colony '50'
    Colony '50'
    Colony '50', 2021, Mold spores on panels covered with resin, 8x9ft At Hamiltonian Gallery, Washington DC
  • New Land
    New Land
    New Land, Mold on yupo paper mounted on panels and covered with epoxy resin, 50x150", 2019 At Pelham Art Center, Pelham, NY "Selin Balci utilizes mold spores grown in a bio lab as metaphors for the human condition in our ongoing fight for resources and territory. These abstract works on panels are a new form of art that takes months to grow in a laboratory/studio." Curators Charlotte Mouquin and Victoria Rolett
  • New Land
    New Land

Contamination Series, 2013-2018


 

  • Annapolis (Highland Beach)
    Annapolis (Highland Beach)
    Microscopic mold on panels, 40x100”, 2018 at School 33 Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland. In this work, I used microscopic mold that is collected from Highland Beach, Annapolis to create an unseen landscape of the scene. Emerging from a diverse array of mold, this work interprets the landscape with invisible inhabitants.
  • Annapolis (Highland Beach)
    Annapolis (Highland Beach)
    Microscopic mold on panels, 40x100”, 2018
  • Contamination 28
    Contamination 28
    Contamination'28', mold on panels, 60x60", 2014 at Trawick Prize Exhibition, Gallery B, Bethesda, Maryland. DESCRIPTION: I use live microscopic mold that leaves physical inscriptions by direct contact on the surface of a paper or board, which creates a living platform. In Contamination Series, the surface of each panel is laced with graceful, brilliant mold until the entire surface is covered and patterned with circular borders. Then, I assembled these forms and shapes that mold produced, to create various visual references that can relate to both natural and human impacted landscapes. The forms have similarities to human-induced activities on the landscape. They create territories, boundaries, and borderlines and end up with conflicts on the picture surface. "Balci gives living microbes a place to grow and organize themselves on specially prepared plates. The microorganisms, which normally are invisible to the naked eye, are made visible in these conditions. They create maps of “territories” as they battle for the food sources, and their behavior is disturbingly parallel to many scenarios of human conflict. The artist organizes and assembles the landscapes or maps that result from these natural migrations into abstract compositions that are limited in tonal variation but elegant in form." by Claudia Rousseau, Gazette.net, September 18, 2013.
  • Contamination 28 (detail)
    Contamination 28 (detail)
    Contamination'28', mold on panels, 60x60", 2014 at Trawick Prize Exhibition, Gallery B, Bethesda, Maryland.
  • Contamination 28 (detail)
    Contamination 28 (detail)
    Contamination'28', mold on panels, 60x60", 2014 at Trawick Prize Exhibition, Gallery B, Bethesda, Maryland.
  • Contamination 32
    Contamination 32
    Contamination 32, mold on panels, 70x70", 2013 The University of Maryland, College Park Stamp Student Union, Contemporary Art Permanent Collection, College Park, MD.
  • Contamination 32
    Contamination 32
    Contamination 32, mold on panels, 70x70", 2013 The University of Maryland, College Park Stamp Student Union, Contemporary Art Permanent Collection, College Park, MD.
  • Contamination 32
    Contamination 32
    Contamination 32, mold on panels, 70x70", 2013 The University of Maryland, College Park Stamp Student Union, Contemporary Art Permanent Collection, College Park, MD.
  • Contamination II
    Contamination II
    Contamination II (detail), mold on panels, 60x110", 2012 at ConnerSmith Gallery, Washignton, DC
  • Contamination II (detail)
    Contamination II (detail)
    Contamination II (detail), mold on panels, 60x110", 2012 at ConnerSmith Gallery, Washignton, DC

Contamination Series, 2011-2012

"If the sinister, fast-growing fuzz that claims your forgotten strawberries for the trash triggers your gag reflex, you might need a little art therapy. In a rare feat of left- and right-brain cooperation, local biological artist Selin Balci uses microorganisms as her medium, shepherding their colonies’ colors and textures into elegant, kaleidoscopic three-dimensional patterns. "

by CHRISTINA CAUTERUCCI   SEPTEMBER 19TH, 2014
  • Contamination I
    Contamination I
    Contamination I, Mold on panels, 70x220", 2012 at University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, Maryland
  • Contamination I
    Contamination I
    Contamination I, Mold on panels, 70x220", 2012 at University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, Maryland
  • Contamination I
    Contamination I
    Contamination I, Mold on panels, 70x220", 2012 at University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, Maryland
  • Contamination I
    Contamination I
    Contamination I, Mold on panels, 70x220", 2012 at University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, Maryland
  • Bound
    Bound
    Bound, Mold on panels, each 11x14", 2011 at The Pearl Conard Art Gallery, The Ohio State University, Mansfield, Ohio
  • Bound
    Bound
    Bound, Mold on panels, each 11x14", 2011 at The Pearl Conard Art Gallery, The Ohio State University, Mansfield, Ohio
  • Structures
    Structures
    Structures, Mold on panels, 10x10" each, 2012 at Hamiltonian Gallery, Washington DC.
  • Structures
    Structures
    Structures, Mold on panels, 10x10" each, 2012 at Hamiltonian Gallery, Washington DC.

Fertile Faces

Fertile Faces, 2022-Ongoing, Mold spores on Polaroid covered with epoxy, 4.233 x 3.483 inches

‘Fertile Faces” combines photography and biological mediums. This project is an ongoing project since 2021. It started during my residency at Istanbul Art Residency and continued at Mass MoCA artist residency in 2022. In this interactive project, Participants contribute with their portraits and microorganisms taken from their bodies.
 
Mold spores are considered a destructive power. However, in this project, mold spores carry the concept of portrait into a new physical reality. I take polaroid portraits of the participants and collect mold spores from their bodies. Then, these microscopic organisms are applied to the polaroid to destroy their portraits. Each person’s unique microbiome transforms the portrait into a new reality. This process makes the microorganisms in participants' bodies visible with distinct colors, textures, and forms. The unseen inhabitants’ interactions and their natural forms create a new identity for the participants. mold spores that we recognize as harmful, reconstruct their portraits.
 

  • Fertile Faces Installation View
    Fertile Faces Installation View
    Fertile Faces, 2022, Mold spores on Polaroid covered with epoxy, 4.233 x 3.483 inches at Mass MoCA Artist studios
  • Fertile Faces (Jo Cosme)
    Fertile Faces (Jo Cosme)
    Fertile Faces (Jo Cosme), 2022, Mold spores on Polaroid covered with epoxy, 4.233 x 3.483 inches In ‘Fertile Soils’, the resident artists at Mass MoCA and Istanbul Art Residency interacted and contributed to my work with their unseen microorganisms. After taking their polaroid portraits and collecting samples from their body, I reconstructed their images with their mold spores. Each person’s unique microbiome transformed their portraits into a new reality. While making the hosts’ microorganisms visible to our eyes with distinct colors and forms, the unseen inhabitants’ interactions and their natural form created a new identity of the artists.
  • Fertile Faces (Tatiana)
    Fertile Faces (Tatiana)
    Fertile Faces (Tatiana), 2022, Mold spores on Polaroid, 3.108 × 3.024 inches
  • Fertile Faces (Self-Portrait)
    Fertile Faces (Self-Portrait)
    Fertile Faces, 2021, Mold spores on Polaroid covered with epoxy, 4.233 x 3.483 inches
  • Fertile Faces (Oscar)
    Fertile Faces (Oscar)
    Fertile Faces (Oscar), 2022, Mold spores on Polaroid covered with epoxy, 4.233 x 3.483 inches
  • Fertile Faces (Gisela Rosario Ramos)
    Fertile Faces (Gisela Rosario Ramos)
    Fertile Faces (Gisela Rosario Ramos), 2022, Mold spores on Polaroid covered with epoxy, 4.233 x 3.483 inches
  • Fertile Faces (Becky)
    Fertile Faces (Becky)
    Fertile Faces (Becky), 2022, Mold spores on Polaroid covered with epoxy, 4.233 x 3.483 inches
  • Fertile Faces (Carolina)
    Fertile Faces (Carolina)
    Fertile Faces (Carolina), 2022, Mold spores on Polaroid covered with epoxy, 4.233 x 3.483 inches
  • Fertile Faces (Freddie)
    Fertile Faces (Freddie)
    Fertile Faces (Freddie), 2022, Mold spores on Polaroid covered with epoxy, 4.233 x 3.483 inches
  • Fertile Faces (Self-portrait), Video, 32 sec

Bordered World

Bordered World, Evolving mold in 2500 Petri dishes at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY, 2014-15
 
Bordered World creates a competition for resources, territorial wars, and struggle for power and control among living organisms. In this project, I reference the fundamental, underlying social dilemmas and principles of our existence in an effort to understand and highlight social issues. My concepts are explored using living entities such as fungus and mold to recreate observable interactions and conflicts across the picture surface, where the outcomes reveal boundaries, edges and distinctive forms. In Bordered World, all vital resources are restricted. This limited environment makes microbes compete for resources, dominate a particular area or become invasive and endanger others. When they share the same living platform, a conflict for resources arise and eventually this results with a borderline. The behaviors of the microorganisms resemble human actions and motives. Visually representing the world map, these microbes act as metaphors for war and the human predicament.

"In Selin Balci’s bio-art installation Bordered World, 2,500 Petri dishes compose a three-dimensional kaleidoscopic world map representing the universal struggle for survival and dominance. Within each hand “painted” Petri dish, live molds and fungi are in an observable battle for limited resources.  Distinctive borders slowly form and new colonies develop during this microscopic feud."
Smack Mellon Curator 

  • Bordered World
    Bordered World
    Evolving mold in 2500 Petri dishes at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY, 2014-15
  • Bordered World
    Bordered World
    Evolving mold in 2500 Petri dishes at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY, 2014-15
  • Bordered World
    Bordered World
    Evolving mold in 2500 Petri dishes at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY, 2014-15
  • Bordered World
    Bordered World
    Evolving mold in 2500 Petri dishes at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY, 2014-15
  • Bordered World
    Bordered World
    Evolving mold in 2500 Petri dishes at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY, 2014-15
  • Installation of Bordered World at Smack Mellon gallery
    Evolving mold in 2500 Petri dishes at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY, 2014-15

The World

"If the artistic process is more interesting than the outcome, as some modernists hold, then the greatest artist is nature itself. Its systems are endless and inexorable, even if the results aren’t always impressive to the naked eye. Take, for example, the fungal experiments of Selin Balci, one of five former Hamiltonian Artists fellows who return to the gallery in “Empirical Evidence.” The Turkey-born Marylander is exhibiting such seemingly inert items as petri dishes that contain slowly evolving mold spores. Far more dramatic is a more artist-directed piece, a five-minute fast-motion video in which molds spread across a world map. It demonstrates the power and scope of the tiniest living things."
Mark Jenkins, October 1, 2021, The Washington Post

"The map-based works present this phenomenon in stark terms, played out as geopolitical headlines ripped from the paper. The World depicts worlds run amok by war, disease or possibly famine. Faint pencil outlines suggest physical boundaries that the organisms push to the brink. Teaming and frothing, they have no “place” to go, and so they turn on one another in a game of brinkmanship, drawing boundaries with battlegrounds to gain the upper hand. The pieces are both eerie and transfixing, haunting yet mesmerizing, and their underlying message could be ignored offhand, if not because we see similar battles taking place today in regions as remote as Syria and as near as Dallas." Eric Hope for East City Art, 2014. 
 
 

  • The World
    The World
    The World (4th version), 2020, Mold spores on panel covered with epoxy resin, 24x40" I used mold to specifically refer to human behavior, culture and society. The world's political map was re-created on a board with growth media (food), then different microorganisms were placed to represent each country. The work demonstrates human actions, form of power, political pressures, immigration, racialism and the dominance of superior countries.
  • The World (5th version)
    The World (5th version)
    The World (5th version), 2020, Mold spores on panel covered with epoxy resin, 16x20"
  • The World
    The World, video, originally 4:33min, 2010 I used mold to specifically refer to human behavior, culture, and society. The world's political map was re-created on a board with growth media (food), then different microorganisms were placed to represent each country. The work demonstrates human actions, forms of power, political pressures, immigration, racialism, and the dominance of superior countries.
  • The World (1st version)
    The World (1st version)
    Mold spores on panel, 2012, 24x40"