Microbial Topographies: The Brightness

Much of the beauty of working with microbes is the malleable, ephemerality of the forms. In this piece, the colors painted in E.coli by the liquid handling robot pooled and bled, morphing into its own microcosm. Mottled textures, blurring bioluminescence, octopus skin… A GFP (green fluorescent protein) “X” appeared only under UV light, an apparition invisible by natural light.

“Curiosity could be a powerful distraction.” I underlined this phrase in Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, the first book in his Southern Reach series. The series is about an environmental contamination site along a coastline dubbed Area X. Annihilation is an account of a 4-party all female (XX) expedition investigating Area X. The party consists of a biologist, psychologist, surveyor, and an anthropologist. The story is told from the perspective of the biologist, and we encounter AreaX through her eyes.

I did not create the image with the book in mind. When I observed the incubated Petri dish, I thought it exhibited the aesthetics in the book; is the microbial formation that was rendered a spill or bloom? Is it alive or is it still? The ghostly X only visible under UV light made me think of the instance in the book when the biologist becomes contaminated with the haunted microbic ecosystem of Area X, which she dubbs “a brightness.”

The bright purple pools recall the moniker “lavender lake,” a sweet phrase that conjures up smells of lilac, violet flavored candies, or soothing paint hues, but in reality is the handle for the Gowanus Canal, a superfund site in Brooklyn, NY.

“Microbial Topographies” open studio at Plexus Projects, August 28, 2026. Photo credit: Malik Rigabie