Ioana Tater
About the Artist
Ioana Tater is a multidisciplinary artist, working primarily with fibers, eco-materials and natural dyes. She holds a BFA from Concordia University and a technical diploma in Wildlife Management from Cégep Saint-Laurent. Her research-based practice explores alternatives to industrial systems of production through material experimentation, care ethics, and eco-spirituality, seeking coherence between concept and process. Her work has been exhibited at Made in Sat Artist Residency (Romania), Museum of Textiles and Stories (Romania), and 4TH SPACE Concordia (Montréal).
Currently based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, her recent work includes cultivating hemp for fibre production and experimenting with mycelium, bioplastics, natural dyes, and paper made from invasive plant species in Tiohtià:ke. She will continue this research through residencies at the Romany Eveleigh Artist Residency in Baie-Saint-Paul in June 2026 and Le Livart × Idartes Artist Residency in Bogotá in September 2026.
About the Project
During her residency, Ioana Tațer explored locally foraged materials, transforming washed-up algae and two invasive plant species—Japanese knotweed and common bedstraw—into sustainable art materials.
Working with Fucus algae, she developed a bioplastic recipe that doesn’t rely on industrially extracted agar or alginate. By extracting and concentrating the algae's natural alginate and combining it with cornstarch, she created a promising bioplastic formula that now requires only minor refinements to achieve the solidity of the films she uses in her practice.
Her regular trips to the Vieux quai, which became a meaningful place, also led her to discover a green alga which she used to make paper and create anthotypes by exposing the natural pigments to the sunlight.
Japanese knotweed yielded dyes ranging from delicate pinks to deep wine reds from its roots while the stems became a robust pink paper. The common bedstraw dyed hemp in shades of pink from the roots and in shades of yellow from the stems. These stems made a soft green paper which also served as anthotypes. These newly discovered materials will eventually come together as a sculpture in celebration of the landscape that offered them.
