Artist Kirsten Stolle Takes Chemical Corporations to Task

“My mom was dressed up as this giant strawberry with fish gills.”

It was this childhood memory that sticks with Asheville-based visual artist Kirsten Stolle as a pivotal moment that would later influence her work. It came during the mid-1990s during a protest in Santa Cruz, California, against American multinational chemical company Monsanto introducing genetically modified organisms, known as GMOs, into the country’s food supply.

“I went down to the protest, and my mom was dressed up as this giant strawberry with fish gills,” Stolle said. “It sounds bizarre and the reason she and her kind of cohorts did that is at the time, Monsanto was trying to genetically engineer a strawberry with a flounder gene to withstand cold temperatures in an effort to allow farmers to produce more fruit.”

She let out a small laugh. “It sounds like science fiction; it’s bizarre.”

Later in life, Stolle would become engrossed in the world of chemicals, pesticides and GMOs. These interests connected her already artistic nature to spur a style of activist art that incorporates environmentalism into collages, tapestries and other works that warn of the impacts that corporations such as Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Bayer and Shell have on our food systems through the use of chemicals, petroleum, pesticides and the like.

As a professional artist over the last two decades, Stolle’s work has been featured in publications such as Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, and The Charlotte Observer.

Her art has been shown near and far, with exhibits at the Asheville Art Museum, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, the Weatherspoon Museum of Art in Greensboro, the NC Museum of Art in Raleigh, and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, now The NC Museum of Art – Winston Salem.

Stolle also had a solo exhibit at NOME in Berlin and one of her pieces, “Last Supper,” will soon be flown to Poland for display there.

But before then, it will finish out its run as part of her current exhibit, Under the Influence, on display in the Projective Eye Gallery at UNC Charlotte’s Dubois Center in Uptown through Oct. 17.

“Pitched at the intersections of art, science, and culture, [Stolle’s] work examines the global influence of chemical companies on our food system,” reads the exhibit’s website. “Delving into propaganda and greenwashing, Stolle appropriates corporate advertising strategies and aesthetics, highlighting the contradiction between public image and facts.”

Stolle will be at the Projective Eye Gallery on Sept. 11 for a reception and artist conversation with curator Adam Justice.

From coast to coast and landing in the Carolinas

Born in Massachusetts, Stolle remembered with clarity how that one experience at a Santa Cruz protest sparked an interest in food systems, the environment and their impact on health. After moving to San Francisco, Stolle became a vegetarian, eating a primarily soy-based diet. When that diet led to health issues, she began researching our country’s food systems further.

“I was eating a lot of processed soy actually and I began to have health problems,” she said. “I potentially attributed that to all the soy, which then led me to remember about the GMOs. Then that led me to try to figure out who the companies are that are genetically engineering plants.”

Having bounced back and forth between coasts throughout her life, Stolle credits the places she’s lived for the environmentally conscious aspect of her work. From living in San Francisco, which she referred to as the “mega epicenter” of food and environmentally conscious people, to Asheville, where she has found that the people have a different approach to environmentalism.

“I would say Asheville is more like, we don’t need to yell from the rooftops that we believe in sustainability, they just do,” she said. “They do what’s right and important. I mean at least people I hang out with.”

She pointed out that, in the United States, there has been a surge in colorectal cancer cases in younger age groups. Many researchers have attributed the rise in these cases to diets that are low in fiber but high in processed foods.

Furthermore, recent reports show that more than half of the average American’s diet comprises ultra-processed foods, and the percentage only goes up for children.

Many Americans aren’t aware of just how harmful genetically modified and ultra-processed foods can be, which is why Stolle points out these problems with her work. Her pieces incorporate advertisements for older agricultural and chemical companies like Monsanto to showcase just how contradictory the industry can be.

The work and the message

Kirsten Stolle’s favorite work, and the one that’s gained the most international acclaim, is a jacquard-woven wall tapestry titled “The Last Supper,” a piece that she acknowledges can be interpreted in many different ways. The original photo that serves as the basis for the piece was taken during a 1952 Monsanto chemical company retirement dinner.

On her website, Stolle writes, “To construct a dynamic portrait, I resized, reversed, repeated, and colorized the original 8” x 10” photograph. The final image transformed into a large tapestry, reimagines the corporate gathering as a celebration of success amid a problematic future. Last Supper expands my practice to highlight the contrast between ordinary-seeming chemical company employees and the business of war.”

Speaking to Queen City Nerve, Stolle laughed at the image. “These four guys are eating and they’re at this table,” she said. “They just look kind of sad, you know they’re supposed to be celebrating this retirement.”

Plants and agriculture are often woven into her work, as in “Last Supper,” which features floral decorations exploding off the table in a way that Stolle said symbolizes “the relationship to plants feeding us supper.”

As was the case when she was experiencing health issues, Stolle said her artistic process begins with DIY research, utilizing library archives online, scientific journals, government and military collections, and the like.

“I actually go to physical archives sometimes and in libraries and then the idea sparks all the research,” she explained. “After that, what happens is I find the appropriate medium that supports that idea, so ‘Last Supper’ is a great example of that.”

Stolle said she finds much of the source material for her work shopping at flea markets and antique shops, where she can sift through old photographs and vintage advertisements for inspiration.

Her other pieces include “Pesticide Pop,” which explores the colorful advertising style for pesticides despite their toxic natures.

“New Way to Stop the Weeds” is a riveting collage on Plexiglas that calls back to the years following World War II when corporations that made pesticides pivoted to try to market it as a consumer product rather than a tool of war.

The piece places a 1960 magazine advertisement and other similar finds on top of neon Plexiglas.

“The neon was very important to this project because I wanted them to glow,” Stolle said. “There’s this weird eerie glow, especially the green. It seems like acid or something.”

Read more: Elizabeth Bradford’s Paintings Capture Vanishing Wilderness Next Door

For Stolle, the goal is not always to awe the viewers of her work but to pass them a message — one that they may dive further into it in a similar vein to the rabbit holes she often finds herself in.

“It doesn’t have to be beautiful, but it has to be interesting and compelling so that whoever comes to see it gets drawn in,” she said.

Interesting and compelling … like a strawberry with gills.

To learn more about Kirsten Stolle’s work, visit her website.