For this project, Atlas of Blobs, I asked ten artists, designers, researchers, and visual thinkers to pick one of the blob forms I’ve made and write a text to name and describe it.

I should say from the start that I have a sort of blob obsession. It’s one of my favourite forms and one I keep coming back to in my daily sketches, over and over again. Blobs are living, organic, and slightly absurd forms modelled on nature. They are always moving—responding, getting larger or smaller, adapting, swimming—and it’s this constant adjusting and redefining of space that gives them their lifelike quality.

I often joke that, as an artist, I am getting a PhD in blobs. I began this project with a simple question: if I am getting a PhD in blobs, what am I reading? What does a blob encyclopedia look like, and what will I find there? This started as a joke, but as I got more serious, I realised that there actually is a lack of blob scholarship. I wanted to find more words about these forms, so I invited others to respond and contribute.

As a creator, it is a huge challenge to try and understand how other people see your work. With this project, I’m incredibly thankful to be able to see my forms through others' eyes and read about what they see in them. It feels like a wonderful act of generosity and I’m incredibly grateful for their words and to be able to share them with you.

In a digital world dominated by flat, gridded, and inorganic interfaces, blobs invite us to explore a more humane, more flexible—more blobbular way of being.

Commissioned by M+, 2022.

- Zach Lieberman