The LillyCow is a drawing on a beef leather made with tick algal solution. It takes the name from the animals from which the skin comes from. Leather is one of the first inventions of early humans. Hunters-gatherers discovered that the skins of the animal the eat, when smoked, could become a very flexible and resistant material to be used for crafting many useful things. Using leather today is a way to close the loop of the meat industry, and is also a celebration of one of the first human creative inventions.
The LillyCow is part of the larger Lillies micro-algae project: a wide process that begins with the cultivation of blue-green algae in photobioreactors (WaterLillies), continues with the creation of bio-products (ink, plastic) made with living algal biomass, and ends up in the creation of algal works (PaperLillies, LillySkins, LillySponges and other LillyThings). On the side of the tangible world, integrating micro-algae cultivations within architecture and design is a way to generate virtuous behaviours into artificial environments by closing some loops: fixing CO2, purifying air and grey waters, enhancing buildings passive behaviours, and producing valuable biomass to be used by local communities as food, feed, or energy source. On the side of the intangible, the bubbling enlightened green water solution is a trap for the eye that creates a sort of hypnotic state of general relaxation in which time loses meaning and the mind enjoys a form of archaic fascination of natural wonders while reflecting on the brevity of human presence on Earth compared to the most ancient living creatures.
The Lillies are a trigger to celebrate human ingenuity through natural algal biomass.
They propose a speculation on the brevity of human path compared to that of Life on Earth.
They contain something very similar to the Primordial Soup where it all began.