We are excited to announce the publication of Ingrid Halland's new article, "The Surface-Process Paradox: On Chemistry, Extraction, and Aesthetics" featured in the special issue 'Troubled Matter' of the journal INSERT. Artistic Practices as Cultural Inquiries edited by Ulrike Gerhardt and Julia Wolf.
Based on our latest primary archival research, Halland's article conceptualizes the “surface-process paradox” by writing a microhistory of TiO2 through a critical dialectical method, from two temporal and disciplinary approaches. First, through the work of the British paint chemist Noël Heaton (1875–1955), and then through the work of Marte Johnslien (b. 1977). We are so grateful for all the help from our outstanding archivist Gro Behrens and the archival photography by curator at Østfoldmuseene Hege Steen Langvik.
In their insightful and thorough introduction, Ulrike Gerhardt and Julia Wolf write that "Halland proposes new ethical guidelines in accordance with an ecological mentality and the entanglement of the biological and cultural that take the exploitative history of the white pigment into consideration."
The TiO2 Project is honored to contribute to a discussion that critically examines the politics and operations behind cultural constructions by bridging artistic, scientific, and curatorial practices within cultural analytical research.
You can read the full article and explore the rest of the issue here: