In April and August 2023, I undertook an artist residency at the University of Exeter’s Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) and the Eden Project. The residency, titled Making Kin with Soil, provided me with a period for research supported by conversations with scientists, growers, ecologists and researchers from University of Exeter and Eden Project. Almost a year on, Movement is Natural, brings together research materials, watercolour maps and poems realised during the residency, with works created in the period since.
With special thanks to the Eden Project, Radical Ecology, and Field Notes.
“I’m interested in reorienting myself around soil, to inhabit a world that operates within another space and time-scale. Humans are part of soil communities, intrinsically linked through our gut microbiomes and the plants we cultivate and consume. I am keen to explore the deeper, relational changes required to perceive soil not only as a resource for crop production, but as a sticky web that embroils us humans with other life-forms in rhythms of growth and decay.”
Prominent in the space is the large ceramic sculpture and sound work, Soil-brain, Gut-brain. A piece originally commissioned by Radical Ecology for the Against Apartheid exhibition at KARST Gallery, 2023. Soil-brain, the sound, is a reflection on the meanings of fertility, vitality, and productivity for soils. Whilst, Gut-brain, a clay vessel, is one of several works in the gallery that uses the digestive system of an earthworm as a means to contemplate the absorption, filtration, and digestion of soils as part of a perpetual natural process.
Transcripts of some of Iman’s conversations, with the people she collaborated with, provide insights into the intersection of art and science, exploring the ways in which ideas are translated and sometimes mistranslated across disciplines. Iman hopes that exhibiting these materials may encourage further dialogue and collaboration between those engaging with South-West soils, emphasising agency beyond extraction and challenging the divide between natural and human-made.
Overall Movement is Natural is an exploration of the dynamics of soil movement and behaviour through a more-than-human lens. Critically engaging with prevailing narratives on soil management in colonial, productionist and geopower contexts, the exhibition advocates for embodied, relational practices and imagines narratives beyond those of extraction.
Words by Cat Bagg, Field Notes