Constanza Dessain

Mingling, seeping and blooming moulds, I’m showing these decomposing works as part of 'Earth Matters' at Inverleith House.  1. Studio Compost 2025-26 Glass, acetate, gelatine, iron salts, washing soda, fruit and vegetables Each 20 x 25cm 2. Earth Matters, installation view in Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 2026. Photo: Ruth Clark ' Earth Matters marks 300 years since the birth of James Hutton, the Edinburgh-born farmer and writer who revolutionised our understanding of Earth’s creation and the ground beneath us. Inspired by Hutton and subsequent trailblazers, over 30 artists delve into this living ecosystem to reveal its brilliance, beauty and fragility. A creative partnership between Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and Susanna Beaumont | Design Exhibition Scotland, Earth Matters is set within Inverleith House Gallery, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The exhibition features work by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Louise Bennetts, Stevi Benson, Stefanie Ying Lin Cheong, John Clerk of Eldin, Constanza Dessain, Joan Eardley, Nancy Fuller, Cara Guthrie, Ilana Halperin, James Hutton, Adam Johnston, John Kay, Tania Kovats, Viv Lee & Jonathan Wade, Becky Little & Tom Morton, Sekai Machache, Maria McStay, Kevin Andrew Morris, Kelly Murray, George Perry, Carol Rhodes, Natalie Taylor, Graeme Todd, JL Williams, Clare Woods, Eleanor White, Alberta Whittle, Crunch Willoughby, Fiona Young, and others.  #RoyalBotanicGardenEdinburgh #EarthMatters #InverleithHouse #DesignExhibitionScotland

Constanza Dessain Meadow sample (No 5) 2024 Now on display at Studies In Photography Constanza Dessain is an artist based in Scotland who explores the relationship between image and landscape. Site-based observations are documented through photochemical image making processes, drawings and sculpture. Following the flux of season and materials, her works narrate ecological entanglement and practices of repair. She has an MA in Printmaking from The Royal College of Art and a BA in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge. She is currently investigating the interplay of time and touch in the substances of early photography for a practice-based, AHRC funded PhD at the University of West England. Constanza Dessain Meadow sample (No 5) 2024 Cyanotype and Sap on paper 29 x 39 cm £400 6 William Street Edinburgh Wed - Sat | 12pm - 5pm @constanzadessain

As part of ‘The Doorway Effect’ @aschandbagfactory I’m showing work made in the Gulf of Finland as part of a Helsinki International Artist Program residency @hiap_suomenlinna earlier this year. I was thinking about the way Suomenlinna island was shaped by great bodies of ice in past glacial periods. The newly forming spring ice moved over the worn contours of the glacially carved bedrock, liquid in the day’s warmth but freezing in rivulets at night. The prints were made directly from the frozen stream’s surface, recording the doing and undoing of both the ancient ice and the morning's meltwater. - Ice remembers water, stone remembers ice, water remembers only the feeling of falling 2025 Gelatine, potassium cyanide, ferric citrate and washing soda on paper - Photos by @tereza_cervenova

“The Doorway Effect” exhibition opens on Friday at the Handbag Gallery in Vauxhall! Come and celebrate with us! The show brings together 16 artists who have collaborated together before across various mediums. Please join us for opening night on Friday 17 October from 18h to 21h and for various artist talks on Sunday 19 October from 15h. Full details are below and we hope to see you ! A group exhibition by a collective of 16 contemporary artists During Frieze Week 2025, a collective of sixteen artists present The Doorway Effect, a group show at the ASC Gallery, Handbag Factory in Vauxhall, London. Positioned as an independent satellite exhibition to the Frieze Art Fair, the exhibition offers complementary perspectives on contemporary art and interrogates how cultural and personal memory is shaped and eroded by the proliferation, manipulation, and absence of images. About the Exhibition The Doorway Effect thoughtfully examines the fragile interplay between memory and forgetting. Through a variety of artistic mediums, including print, installation, video, and photography, the artists engage in a broad exploration of how images function as dynamic sites of memory and meaning. This investigation studies the impact of passing through thresholds—both literal and metaphorical—on recollections, fostering a deeper understanding of how environments and visual elements influence our perceptions of past experiences. By highlighting these evolving landscapes of memory, the artists encourage audiences to reflect on the complexities of their own memories and the fluidity of meaning. About the Collective The collective brings together an international cohort of artists whose practices span diverse disciplines, united by a shared interest in the instability of the image. Working across material and digital processes, they highlight experimental approaches to print and reproduction as tools for cultural reflection. Images and artist biographies available upon request.

Two events not to be missed at PhotoDalkeith 2025! Starting in the early weeks of the show at Dalkeith Palace you can attend these interactive events. Book your place from the link in our bio. Cyanotype Workshop: Constanza Dessain 🗓 6th & 28th September @constanzadessain Afghan Box Camera Portraits: Gregg McNeill 🗓 6th & 13th September @gbmcinephoto @dalkeith_country_park

@alexanderfremihamilton and I have installed a conversation between our cyanotypes in a magnificent baroque room for PhotoDalkeith at the Palace in @dalkeith_country_park Curated by Julia Lawson the exhibition brings together 17 Scottish artists working with photography. For a full list of the line up look on @studies.in.photography The show opens this Friday 30th August and runs until the 5th of October.

Thank you to @terra.falmouth  and @sustainabledarkroom  for a rich few days of ideas at their conference 'Sustainable Photography?' I spoke about animal and image bodies- and followed the links between cows, methane and photography’s use of gelatine. Image: Beef from Tacuinum Sanitatis, Ibn Butlan, c. 14th century

At midsummer in the woods of Finland you’re surrounded by drifts of Lily of Valley and King Solomon’s Seal. Lupins line every ditch…. Walking in the landscape listening to Timo Kaukolampi’s sonic composition for the shore around this peaty lake on the island of Kimitoon. To listen: /route/kaukolampi/ Commissioned as part of  The Garden and the Hedge International Summer Exhibition & Programme 5.6.–31.8.2025 http://earth.kubu.fi

I've really enjoyed eating and chatting beneath my prints amidst the many merry happenings @kulturhus_kubu Their summer program is an incredible line up of talks, workshops and performances to accompany The Garden and the Hedge which runs until the end of August. The Garden and the Hedge International Summer Exhibition & Programme 5.6.–31.8.2025 Kulturhus Björlkboda (KUBU) Smedskullavägen 3 25860 Björkboda Finland Team: Teresa Dillon Curator The Garden and The Hedge and Artist Lead of Elemental Threads Programme. Tuomo Tammenpää and Sari Kippillä Executive producers, Kulturhus Björkboda With contributions from  @mrandybest @laitinen_antti @paulgranjon @constanzadessain @jondroriuk @kalelhamam dzamil_ka @kasiamolga @robinrimbaud @knowlewestmc @teemu_lehmusruusu @mediengruppe_bitnik @zabriskiebuchladen @kaukolampi @anttitolvi @weiweiweiwear @dusjagr @ilveskorpi @jussipuustjarvi @ronjatammenpaa @marjutnordb @agryfp @heymayahey @uni_southampton_wsa

Amazing opening days for ‘The Garden and the Hedge’ @kulturhus_kubu curated by Teresa Dillon. A show where digital hacking and ecological thinking cross pollinate, closing the distance between soil and circuit boards, foraged dyes and electronic soundscapes. http://earth.kubu.fi In the Skin of a Meadow (2024) Constanza Dessain Mud Machine (2020–ongoing) Paul Granjon Garden of the Undocumented (2013) Kalle Hamm & Dzamil Kamanger Flowers of Evil (2022) Andy Best-Dunkley & Merja Puustinen Garden of the Undocumented (2013) Kalle Hamm & Dzamil Kamanger

Details from prints I’ll be showing in The Garden and The Hedge at @kulturhus_kubu which opens next month. They're about the focused acts of destruction necessary in gardening, aka weeding! They’ve made from the docks and sticky willie and ragwort I pulled from our meadow last summer. From the series: In the skin of a meadow 2024 cyanotype and plant sap on paper

Blossom outside, but in the studio the warmth is bringing darker flowerings. These works from Gloaming @micro__scope have kept changing, the apples rotting into stars. From the series: Studio Blooms 2024-5 Glass, gelatine, cyanotype and apples 20 x 25 cm