Crude Resist Prints
By placing small amounts of crude oil on water, the shapes within these images grow organically. Although oil originated as small organisms living in the ocean, in its current form it resists merging with water, determinedly maintaining its separate form. By dropping a sheet of paper on the surface of the water, the forms within the oil solidify. Re-contextualizing and acknowledging this transformational material is integral to establishing a new appreciation for all the earth provides.
“In the case of oil and water, it is energetically favorable for the oil to be separate from the water, because these molecules bind more strongly to themselves than to each other. The extra energy released is now available to thermal motion of the oil and water molecules, or to the surrounding air molecules, increasing the entropy of the universe.” - Kevin Zhou, Stanford University