With “Sentient Soil,” Vera Kox invitations us to query our understanding of the relationships between people, nature and matter on the backdrop of the sweeping adjustments which can be affecting our planet. Revolving round three main collection of works, this solo exhibition immerses viewers in a part-natural, part-artificial panorama between Pleistocene and post-Anthropocene.

The Luxembourgish-German artist makes use of the intrinsic properties of supplies to create different situations by which industrial and natural components merge and collide. Kox’s works are hybrid objects that may very well be described as fossils of our materialistic current. By conjoining seemingly disparate components, they type an autonomous atmosphere with its personal logic that defies widespread classes and ideas.

On the one hand, the artist presents fragmentary imprints of vegetation which can be paying homage to stays of long-lost species, thus pointing to the rampant lack of organic variety. Then again, these relics mix with a ‘habitat’ of dwelling moss, which in flip stands for the lengthy cycles of nature that unfold independently of us people. (Moss, which developed round 450 million years in the past, is without doubt one of the first life kinds to have appeared on our planet.)

Kox’s video installations are the results of her analysis in locations as numerous because the volcanic springs of Dallol in Ethiopia or the Arctic expanses of Spitsbergen, the place the consequences of local weather change are significantly tangible. On the North Pole, for example, common temperatures have risen by a worrying 4 levels Celsius over the previous 50 years, resulting in intensive thawing of the permafrost soils. These geographical contrasts are additionally mirrored within the numerous, typically paradoxical materialities that punctuate the exhibition, as within the works from the Viscera collection, which seem to soften or drift like fragments of pack ice. The ]Instar[ series, on the other hand, with its bursting glazes, is evocative of parched desert landscapes, such as those found at one of the lowest points on earth in Ethiopia.

A central element in Kox’s work are steel girders, which embody the unstoppable progress of industrial production. At the same time, these standardized components are representative of her hometown Esch, a former steel city, which has been undergoing fundamental structural change in the wake of globalization. In the exhibition, the angular beams enter into a dialogue with organic objects made of clay—a material commonly associated with arts and crafts and whose unfathomably long formation process contrasts with the fast-paced manufacturing methods of industry.

In Kox’s latest material associations, water, the basis of all life, plays the role of a connecting element. It is only in combination with water that clay, a solid and crumbly material when dry, becomes a flexible mass that can be shaped like skin or dough. The artist embraces these shifting properties to emphasize the transformative processes inherent in her own works, either through material deformations or references to geological processes. This play with the materiality of her objects is key to the sensual experience of the exhibition, blurring the boundaries between the natural and the artificial: hard surfaces appear soft, gooey matter has dried up, fluids have solidified.

With the title of her exhibition, “Sentient Soil,” the artist invites us to conceive of the Earth as a coherent, living organism capable of experiencing feelings and sensations. On the scale of the planet, a wafer-thin layer of fertile soil harbors an incredibly complex organic diversity in constant interaction. It is this layer that lies at the heart of Kox’s works, where it gives rise to diverse forms and textures. A mixture of sand, clay, silt, water and air, it has provided the breeding ground for human life for thousands of years, but agriculture, urban development and increasing waste generation are causing this substrate to disappear forever. Seen in this light, Kox’s artistic practice is akin to an archaeology of the future: bringing to light the buried remains of the consumer age, it urges us to reflect on the consequences of our actions.

The two parts of the presentation are conceptually connected by down above, a semi-circle of ceramic discs that interacts with the other works to reveal the interconnectedness and porosity of all forms of life. In a simultaneously poetic and disturbing way, the exhibition Sentient Soil shows that the planet we live on is constantly changing, but also that our actions are inextricably linked to these processes. In that respect, it is a call to radically rethink our understanding of this complex fabric.
—Charles Wennig

at Konschthal Esch, Luxembourg
until January 19, 2025