Hydrogen Bonds



2023-2024



















































































Workshop Emulsion Lifting
Workshop Emulsion Lifting
Workshop Emulsion Lifting
Workshop Emulsion Lifting
Commissioned by the Dutch Research Council (NWO)

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) and KABK initiated a project that invited me to work on NWO’s research programme Closed Cycles.  By collaborating with an academic researcher, Dr. ir. Ruud Bartolomeus,  I explored the connection between scientific and artistic research.  


In May 2024 the results were presented in the form of exhibition and workshop, during NWO Life 2024 scientific conference in Egmond aan Zee. The exhibition Flowing Forward in Closed Cycles continued in location space Paradise, The Hague in July 2024.

This year's conference of NWO life takes place in Egmond, which coincidentally is also the village where I was born and have lived for 18 years. This coincidence sparked my motivation to create a site-specific work in my hometown. I still feel a strong connection to Egmond, since my family still lives there, but also because of the strong community feeling that is often noticeable in smaller towns. 

Hearing Ruud Bartolomeus talk about the research in detail made me want to explore Egmond through the eyes of the done research. I used core messages like the purifying effects of the soil, the water system beneath the surface, groundwater levels, and the local effects of water regulations discussed in the research, to search for a place I could physically enter, but also for a space where I wanted to wander. 

I found inspiration in the dune lands, where the locals experience issues with water regulations, and the history of Egmond. I connect this history and the current issues with the medium of water. Like a hydrogen bond. As a fishing town, water is what made the village stick together in the first place. It is their connecting factor, and now, being a witness of the community falling behind because of water. 

By documenting the physical water on the flooded dune lands in Egmond aan Zee, I was able to zoom in on the local effects and consequences of groundwater regulations. I collected the stagnated water and used this for the process of emulsion lifting, a technique where water separates the emulsion layer of a polaroid which can then be transferred onto a new material. For the emulsion lifts, I used archive imagery that I found by diving into the historic communal events of Egmond. By activating this archive with water, I demonstrate how the communities were brought together by water in the first place, but how the water on the flooded Lankies now disrupts the communities from coming together.







© Mayte Breed