Debora Lombardi: Between Art and Science
© Debora Lombardi
Written by Megan May Walsh
Edited by Jana Massoud
Photo Edited by Lucia Luzzani
The life lurking unbeknownst to the naked eye is precisely what artist Debora Lombardi renders visible in her photographic series Between Art and Science. Finding inspiration within the stillness and the fear of the unknown during the height of the pandemic, Lombardi wanted to trigger a visual imagination of the virus running rampant across the world, invisible to the naked eye. Encountering the phenomenon of fluorescent plants and flowers hit by ultraviolet light by a biologist’s blog, Lombardi wondered how this phenomenon could present itself in art.
© Debora Lombardi
© Debora Lombardi
Debora Lombardi began assembling the subject of her series Between Art and Science by first collecting plants and flowers from the condominium garden during the pandemic, experimenting with the plants that appeared strangest under ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet-induced visible light fluorescence photography is a technique that captures the fluorescence of plants and flowers under ultraviolet light, making visible what is often invisible to the naked eye. Photographs capturing this invisibility reveals the unseen chromatic world lurking beneath the surface of what the naked eye can see.
Discovering a parallel between the unseen chaos of COVID-19 racing across the globe and the invisible fluorescence of flowers, Lombardi reveals that the monstrous visions and mysterious beauty of fluorescent plants is similar to witnessing the virus under an electron microscope.
© Debora Lombardi
Rendering the invisible visible through art, especially during uncertain times, has the capacity to offer solace. Fear and anxiety triggered by invisible forces is difficult to subdue without making visible the source of torment. And it is often the things we cannot see and cannot understand that inspire the most fear. Lombardi aims to ease the uncertainty by rendering an invisible world of science visible through photographic power. Witnessing the unearthly, monstrous, mysterious, and fascinating visions of fluorescence emitting plants under ultraviolet light can be emblematic of what it would be like to visually witness the virus. Perhaps with such an imagination, we can find a morsel of peace amidst the unknown.
© Debora Lombardi
© Debora Lombardi
Lombardi’s work reminds us that there are worlds, chromatic and otherwise, operating amongst our world, invisible to our senses but nonetheless present. Conceptualizing these otherworldly phenomena through Lombardi’s photographic work is a path towards abandoning the fear induced by invisible forces and instead embracing the mystery.
