The Geological Unconscious

‘What truth could be more unexpected ….than the one in which the mineral envisions while also being envisioned.’ – Jason Groves, The Geological Unconscious

‘‘This is the blueprint of nature itself; both hidden and revealed in a nodule of silica.’ – Roger Caillois, The Writing of Stones

A group exhibition, co-curated by Julie F Hill and Susan Eyre, exploring themes of stone consciousness and human-mineral encounters, destabilising assumptions about passive matter and a stable Earth

Responding to Jason Groves’ inquiry into the mineral imaginary in his eponymous book, as well as the ‘Writing of Stones’ as proposed by writer and mineral collector Roger Caillois, the exhibition exposes the complex entanglements between the organic and the inorganic; the human and the lithic. The Geological Unconscious is viewed through disruptive Surrealist strategies, engagements with the aesthetics of geo-materiality and material processes that attend to the growth and transformation of matter. These artistic ‘excavations’ highlight the toll of extractive industries on our planet, whilst inspiring reverence for the geological lineages of deep, cosmic time. Theories of Animism and Panpsychism are also brought to bear on ways of attributing agency to inorganic realms.

With a multi-disclipinary approach, large-scale installations and sculptural works sit alongside embroidery, video, expanded print and photographic work, to create material intimacies that help situate us in scales beyond the human. Julie F Hill’s sculpural print installation reworks data of asteroid Bennu to consider ideas of stone consciousness via astro-geological-biological lineages; Susan Eyre’s video installation imagines a view of the world from the perspective of the rock via the molecular structure of magnetite; Charlie Franklin presents sculpture and a series of drawings that consider how geological associations are evoked through the use of natural and synthetic colouration processes; Rona Lee works with photographic plates from books published during the postwar – “golden age of capitalism’, layering them to evoke the complex entanglements of human and mineral which underpin the expanded geologies of contemporary life. Deborah Tchoudjinoff’s video installation takes a speculative look at Earth in the far future where particular minerals are now extinct. Her work considers vast, beyond human, geological timescales where continents have once again become one.

An accompanying events programme includes an urban geology walk with Geologist Ruth Siddall, discussing the origins of the local built environment; an installation and tasting by chef Moonhyung Lee who explores human-mineral entanglements through digestion; crystal growing workshops; artist-led exhibition tours and talks as well as fortune telling performances using gemstones.