Myka Baum

I work using experimental printing processes, horticulture and installation.
The concept of life cycles lies at the core of my practice.

My ongoing investigation into the point at which nature becomes an image is manifested through a destructive production process. It is centered on a microbiology of growing and developing living and rotting matter, which become implicated onto the surface of the image. Processes have included corrosion of film under compost, corrosion of prints in saltwater and planting crops into and through photographic prints. These processes are captured using historic and modern methods such as Cyanotypes, Anthotypes and digital photography.

The cycles of transformations found in nature reflect my inner conflict between life and death. These in-between stages resonate through the ongoing theme of breaking down the image into traces of the process.
My most recent body of work examines the death of honeybees. Using cyanotypes, the photographic silhouette
of the insect is printed into a beehive frame, creating a negative image of the presence of something that
is threatened to become extinct. Works made over the last decade contribute to an ecology of an ongoing re-presentation that informs and co...

2007 – 2008
PG Cert Photography, Central Saint Martins College for Art & Design, London

2002 – 2004
Fashion Product Management, BA (hons) First Class, London Centre For Fashion Studies

2014
Brighton Photo Fringe, Autumn Germination: The Sprouting of New Ideas, curated by Sue Steward
Freightliners City Farm, Bonfire In A Beehive, London

2013
Tri-pod presents Miss Havisham’s Larder, Photofusion Gallery, London

2012
Q-Art Presents 4, APT Gallery, LondonCrash Open, Charlie Dutton Gallery, London

2011
index7, Protein Gallery, LondonTry A Little Tenderness, Freightliners Farm, LondonOn Water, Canal Museum, Londonearth:NOW:being, Hackney City Farm, London & Church Farm, Stevenage

2010
Crash Open, Charlie Dutton Gallery, LondonFolk Off’, Green Lens Studio, LondonLittle White Lies, SuperMonday Collective, Stour Space, London

2009
Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2009, Cornerhouse, ManchesterTracing The Image, SuperMonday Collective, Crypt Gallery, LondonBloomberg New Contemporaries 2009, A Foundation, LondonUnique Perspectives, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham