Biodiversity Fingerprint Commission Unveiling | 19 Jun 2024
In June 2024 Proposition hosted the unveiling of the Biodiversity Fingerprint Commission, featuring new works by Katie Bret-Day and William Joshua Templeton. The evening included a curator’s welcome, an introduction to the artists, a short film screening and an opportunity to hear Proposition’s ‘Proposition’.
About
On Wednesday 19 June 2024, Proposition hosted the unveiling of the Biodiversity Fingerprint Commission, featuring newly commissioned works by Katie Bret-Day and William Joshua Templeton.
The artists had been selected through Proposition’s 2024 Open Call for artistic responses to the Biodiversity Fingerprint, and the unveiling marked the culmination of their Research and Development residency and the presentation of their completed works.
The evening began with a curator’s welcome, followed by an introduction to the artists, a short film screening and an opportunity to hear Proposition’s ‘Proposition’.
Katie Bret-Day’s monumental piece was mounted on the external wall of Proposition Camden, facing the iconic Roundhouse. The banner displaying her artwork was created with a strong Biodiversity Fingerprint, with its materials, production, installation and eventual afterlife all carefully considered.
The textile used was created by removing waste plastic from the environment and spinning it into yarn, which was then woven into rPET textile. The inks used were certified with the OEKO-TEX® ECO PASSPORT. A gutter was installed to divert rainwater runoff away from drains, preventing microparticles from entering rivers and eventually the ocean.
Lighting for the banner was kept below 2200 Kelvin and directed away from the sky to minimise disturbance to birds. At the end of the banner’s life, Proposition planned to have the rPET textile melted down and cast into the mould of a beehive, which would house bees on the roof of the building and support pollination.
The unveiling celebrated the culmination of the commission and the artists’ responses to the Biodiversity Fingerprint, bringing the completed works to Proposition for the first time.
Artist Biographies
Katie Bret-Day
Katie Bret-Day is a London-based artist who uses the viscous materiality of photography to explore the contingent and discursive nature of being. Spanning the contexts of posthuman and connected ecology, Bret-Day’s research explores the amalgamation of digital and physical bodies using alternative methods of image capture, interventions and printing.
Bret-Day’s interests sit at the intersection of the arts and sciences. She uses the medium of photography as an expanded practice, to represent scientific findings, research and philosophical concepts.
In 2018, Bret-Day was nominated as one of five rising talents by the Guardian and her work was included in the Tate commissioned Photography Ideas Book (2019) and subsequently acquired by the British Library. In 2018 as well, she received Creative Review’s Zeitgeist Award in 2018.
Katie Bret-Day graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2020 with distinction and holds a First Class degree from the London College of Communication UAL.
@KatieBretDay // https://katiebretday.cargo.site
William Templeton
William Templeton (b.1985) is a London based photographer and visual artist whose work investigates connection, the environment and our place within it. His documentary style is considered, soft and often sombre. Using muted blacks and rich colours, Will creates images pared down to their raw fundamentals, that carry a positive message.
The environment is a recurrent theme in Templeton’s personal work, as he seeks to use his visual arts practice as a force for Good: "My mission is to undo the negative human impact on the environment by sharing positive stories that help us realise that we are all a part of this beautiful ecosystem and not divorced from it.”
Templeton supports the International Rescue Committee, the Rivers Trust and donates 1% of annual sales to environmental organisations via the 1% for the Planet initiative.
Previous work include Ways and Means: River Pollution in England, a project released as a book by La Mentale publishing in Jan 2024, and Environmentalism in Embakasi, a film shot for Culture COP, which brings the voice of culture to the annual COP conferences. The project documented the work of a young environmental activist in a southern Nairobi urban informal settlement.
@williamtempleton // https://williamjoshuatempleton.com/