https://ars.electronica.art/planetb/en/invisible-seam/

Invisible Seam is an interdisciplinary project merging film, sound, and sculpture. At its core is Methane Lake, a film and sound installation that delves into the gradual yet powerful geological processes occurring deep within permafrost, offering a meditative reflection on the sentience of ice. Works incorporating paintings, soil, and plant fragments further evoke the intricate interplay between natural elements and the passage of time.

Image above: ‘Methane Lake’ is made from blocks of frozen ice, each at a different stage of melting. For ‘Planet B’ at Ars Electronica, water for the work is sourced from glaciers from the high Dryus period.

The project examines particles floating in the air and matter buried underground from past worlds. In an exploration of Arctic permafrost and plants preserved in this depository, the project traces histories of generations of underground systems. Starting with boglands as its protagonist — their ecosystem, history and mythologies — the project considers ideas around time and the preservation of collective memory in that thin layer between soil and rocks, where some of the most important changes in contemporary times are taking place.

Image above: ‘Methane Lake’, Film still, melting permafrost, Siberian Arctic. Premiered at Ars Electronica (2022)

‘Methane Lake’, Melting permafrost, Siberian Arctic. Premiered at Ars Electronica (2022)

In the video installation Methane Lake, the artist paints on large blocks of ice from different moments in history that have calved from the Arctic ice sheet and brought to the British Antarctic Survey. The act of painting with invisible methane gas presents itself as a time capsule of the frequency of the Earth 20,000 years ago, representing the imagined notion of a time we cannot go back to. The artist embarked on an expedition to explore this beautiful and vital Arctic ice which holds a memory that extends for millions of years into the past. The film explores the slow workings of geological processes found deep in permafrost, meditating on the sentience of ice. By painting on ice from different moments in history and letting them melt, the artist wishes to express the infinite concept of Ensō. Ensō is rooted in Japanese calligraphy and closely related to the concept of wabi-sabi — the Japanese idea of the transience of all things. Ensō is a circle that has since ancient times been written with canes or sticks in mid-air.

Image above, Installation view, Methane Lake’, The Model (IRL) 2023

Listening to Soil

Offering

Interaction between materials, technology and culture

The project started by collecting soil samples from the JRC soil library, organizing them by location, thus creating a roadmap to the journey soil has taken; the trail along which civilization travels. As the trail progresses across timescales, the PH content changes and the tonality of the soil shifts. The installation is one result of an ongoing dialogue with Arwyn Jones (EU – JRC) and archaeologist Dr Brendan O’Neill (IRL) to chart soil processes and rituals circa 1500 BC.

By constructing a traditional lime kiln to mix lime with clay and soil, the work, Offering, mimics the shape of a burial urn, historically meant to enclose cremation ashes. *Offering* aims to reveal forgotten histories when ecological practices and gathering food were based on the necessity of survival and the cycle of life. The artwork rewinds to a time when people did not exhaust nature.