Stephanie Valentin wants you to read the fine print. Using a focused ion beam microscope, the Australian artist engraves words like enchant, bind, and captivate on individual grains of pollen as small as 25 microns wide. "It's like sandblasting with charged gallium ions," she says. The tattooed dust is then photographed and magnified to create a 7- by 8-inch print on resin-based archival paper. To keep pollen from disintegrating during the etching process, Valentin collaborated with Paul Munroe, a materials-science professor at the University of New South Wales, to modify the microscope's beam intensity. The tool, usually employed for milling inorganic materials, was turned into a sculptor's chisel. Her pollinate exhibit is on view by request until September at the Stills Gallery in Sydney.
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