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Artist educator Elizabeth Shores (they/them) will be in residence at Art Laboratory Berlin from 23-25 May creating alginate bioplastic and bioaggregate sheets that waste well together with locally foraged materials. This is done as an ongoing praxis examining how different systems maintain power by discarding life, places, and materials.

While in residence, Elizabeth will mix seaweed alginate with foraged compostable matter to create semi-transparent, stained-glass-like bioplastic and bioaggregate sheets for installation on the windows of Art Laboratory Berlin. These sheets are easy to reposition and remove without causing damage, and are completely compostable. Elizabeth will also be creating an urban watercolor palette using bricks, plants, and soil foraged in Philadelphia and Berlin to color the site-specific alginate installation.

The public is invited to visit the installation on 23 and 24 May 2024, between 1 and 4 pm to learn more about the process of creating the work in the exhibition space.

On Saturday, 25 May at 11 am, Shores will present a slide presentation showing the relationship of bioplastics, bioaggregates, and other biomaterials to discard studies. This talk will be followed by a hands-on workshop from 1 until 6 pm. Workshop participants will learn to make bioaggregate sheets using foraged materials that they bring with them (for example flowers from off the sidewalk, leaves fallen from trees, scraps of paper or fabric, leftover dried onion peels or similar, etc). Workshop participants will receive a handout with recipes and resources while learning hands-on methods used to create the work in the gallery. Participants will leave with an understanding of how to create plant-based bioplastics, watercolors, and inks.

A public viewing of the biomaterial installation created by the artist and workshop participants will follow the workshop before the materials are buried, composted, and repurposed.


Elizabeth A. Shores (they/ them) is an artist educator whose practice uses multi-sited transnational methods of collaborative design to study the language of empire in material culture. Elizabeth completed an MFA in Electronic Art & Ecology at the University of New Mexico, and a BFA in Intermedia at the University of Iowa. Elizabeth has exhibited, published, curated, or presented work at such institutions as SITE Santa Fe, Tamarind Institute, The Museum of Modern Art, University of California San Diego, University of Pennsylvania, the School of Visual Arts, New York University, Maryland Institute College of Art, Arizona State University, Yale University, University of New Mexico, Zayed University, and the University of Zagreb. Elizabeth’s work can be found in the collections of the University of Iowa and the Nevada Museum of Art Center for Art+The Environment. Awarded residencies include the Millay Colony for the Arts, the Ox-Bow School of Arts, Blue Mountain Center, Shandaken: Storm King, and the Studios at MASS MoCA.