Archive of Vibrant Matter

Basic Data

Description: H.E.R.B.S. (Healthier Environment, Remedy for Body and Skin) is a project initiated in 2019 to explore the application of culinary and medicinal herbs as dyes and as donors of essential oils to furnishings and clothing. The H.E.R.B.S. quilt used rosemary, sage and camomile as dyes onto natural linen. In the H.E.R.B.S. installation the practice was demonstrated using second-hand white cotton T-shirts dipped in different herbal dye-baths, as a way of upcycling these garments. Tests by a laboratory, Centexbel in Belgium, confirmed that the essential oils remain in the fabrics giving the potential for improved well-being.
Credit: Studio Nienke Hoogvliek
Submitted by: Alastair Fuad-luke
Typology: Transforming Practice
Origin, Location and Movement?: Immigrant (arriving in a location from another; imported)
Item Relation: Several Things
State of abundance: Common
Date of creation: 2021-01-01

Socio-cultural Data

Present Uses

H.E.R.B.S. (Healthier Environment, Remedy for Body and Skin) is a project initiated in 2019 to explore the application of culinary and medicinal herbs as dyes and as donors of essential oils to furnishings and clothing. The H.E.R.B.S. quilt used rosemary, sage and camomile as dyes onto natural linen. In the H.E.R.B.S. installation the practice was demonstrated using second-hand white cotton T-shirts dipped in different herbal dye-baths, as a way of upcycling these garments. Tests by a laboratory, Centexbel in Belgium, confirmed that the essential oils remain in the fabrics giving the potential for improved well-being.

Technical Data

Class of Material

Polymers

Bio-temporal-geographical Data

Residence time (How long does the matter/material/artefact stay in an unaltered state in the location/context/system before it decay?)

Decades

How does the item affect the environment in which it exists?

Nourish it

Ontological-cosmological Data

gentleness

How would you like to be with this artefact/material/living thing/matter?

Wrapping my body with it, letting the aroma enter my skin.

What can humans give back to this artefact/material/living thing/matter?

Human knowledge of the use of culinary and medicinal herbs runs over millenia. We should treasure the knowledge and the plants that create these wonderful health giving effects.

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H.E.R.B.S.

Transforming Practice, Several Things, Common, Polymers, Decades