PIA ÖSTLUND

Pia Östlund is a Swedish designer and printmaker based in London. She works on collaborative site-specific projects, exhibitions and limited editions. These are often inspired by archives and library collections as much as by nature and our relation to it. Following a discovery in the library at Chelsea Physic Garden, she has revived a lost nineteenth century method of nature printing. She is the 2023 recipient of a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust grant. Together with Matthew Zucker, she co-authored Capturing Nature (Zucker Art Books 2022 & Princeton Architectural Press, 2023) –the most extensive visual survey of nature printing to-date– and accompanying exhibition, touring from Oxford Botanic Garden to Singapore Botanic Gardens.

She is currently developing her knowledge and skills in textiles, dye and print at the Royal College of Art.

SEA OF LOVE

With Sea of Love, Östlund turns her attention to the unique environment of the Koster Sea, on the Swedish border to Norway, and the work carried out by marine scientists at Tjärnö Marine Laboratory, University of Gothenburg. With access to the laboratory via a summer residency in 2023 Östlund is temporarily part of a community passionate about the sea and witness to investigations of how climate crisis affects the seaweed belts in the waters of Kosterhavet. As the oceans call out for our attention, Sea of Love draws parallels between printmaking, marine sciences and the passionate pursuit of finding things out.

SEA BEECH

The beautiful sea beech algae (Delesseria sanguinea), with bright crimson fronds is rarer to find along the sea shore. It thrives in deeper waters at anything between four to 25 meters depth.The specimen used to make this print was collected by dredging from Nereus, Tjärnö’s research boat, in July. It captures the sea beech at its fullest. The intense colour and its red seam-like ‘veins’ inspired the red screenprinted sail next to it. The colour is also a nod to ‘Falu Rödfärg’ a signature red paint favoured on traditional cottages in the Swedish countryside (and also the colour of the marine laboratory).This red paint is a by-product of the copper mining industry in the city of Falun, Sweden.

Work Details

  • Sea of Love, Sea Beech (Delesseria sanguinea) 2024

  • Nature printed à la poupée with chin collé on Hahnemühle paper 350 gsm. 
    The copper intaglio plate was made according to Alois Auer’s intaglio nature printing method from 1853. The original seaweed was collected at Tjärnö Marine Laboratory in the Koster Sea on the Swedish west coast in July 2023.

  • Image size 390 x 287 mm / Paper size 430 x 580 mm

  • Edition size 18 / 2 a.p. / 2 p.p by Borch Editions, Copenhagen

  • Please email for pricing