Habets’ practice revolves around making place-based art installations and staging material performances. He operates on the crossroads of visual arts, landscape architecture and humanities.
Nitrophiles is a site-specific installation in which photographic prints of lichens are embedded in thin agar agar sheets, pigmented with parietin (a natural lichen dye).
These fragile, gelatinous layers are installed on loose sheets of glass, where they gradually decompose over the duration of the exhibition. Light, airflow, and humidity activate the work, transforming the images as they fall apart and return to the ecology of the space.