Bringing the Arts Down To Earth / Clive Adams / International Nature Art Seminar

Bringing the Arts Down To Earth

Clive Adams introduces an arts project that supports the soil

 

 

Clive Adams

Clive Adams is a director of the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World (CCANW), which he founded in 2006.The Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World, based at the University of Exeter, is a not-for-profit organization which explores new understandings of our place within Nature through the Arts.

 

Soil Culture is a programme that uses the arts to inspire a deeper public understanding of the importance of soil. It is part of the United Nations International Year of Soils.

Not only are healthy soils essential for the production of food for a growing world population, but they are also a vital part of our global ecosystem, acting as a carbon sink to reduce the impact of climate change. They filter our water and protect us from flooding. They also provide fibres for our clothing, and timber for construction and fuel.

Today, soils around the world are increasingly being threatened by poor management and short-termism, resulting in compaction, contamination, erosion and salinisation, together with a loss of fertility, organic matter and biodiversity. In surveys conducted between 2002 and 2011 in south-west England alone (where our programme largely takes place), 38% of soils were revealed to be significantly degraded, leading to increased run-off and serious consequences for the wider environment.

Just as the first landscapes were painted on the walls of Roman villas in the 1st century BC at a time of over-cultivation and deforestation, so can new art forms provide us with valuable tools to raise eco-consciousness: to help people appreciate the importance of their everyday surroundings and the resources they might take for granted or otherwise abuse. They can touch people in ways that science and conventional advocacy frequently fail us.

The linking of the words ‘soil’ and ‘culture’ may seem strange, but it should be remembered that the word ‘culture’ was originally used in the ‘agri-cultural’ sense, and it was only from the 16th century that it increasingly came to be used figuratively; as the soil was improved by good husbandry, so the mind was improved by education and the arts. Perhaps it is now time for the arts and education to help put culture back into the soil?

The author Graham Harvey noted in his 1997 book The Killing of the Countryside: “It remains the sobering fact that even in the age of global communications and the Internet, civilisation continues to depend on a few inches of topsoil for its very existence.” Indeed, the Soil Culture programme has its origins in conversations over a decade ago with Graham when I was curating an art exhibition on the history of British livestock farming, in the aftermath of the last foot-and-mouth epidemic – in particular on the damaging effects of insecticides and nitrogen fertilisers on the environment, which were increasingly being noticed in the 1960s.

The programme developed in earnest when, in early 2013, we entered into a partnership with Falmouth University, which then secured support for a period of research from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which culminated in a forum in Falmouth last year that brought together over 90 artists, writers and environmentalists.

Soil Culture is now supported by Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund and British Society of Soil Science, and comprises 12 artist residencies across the South West and at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, eight of which have been selected from an open submission. The residencies attracted 655 applications from 39 different countries, a strong indication of the increasing number of artists becoming engaged with environmental issues.

The residencies were held in a wide range of organisations, from the Eden Project in mid Cornwall and the University of Exeter’s Environment and Sustainability Institute in Penryn to the new Hauser & Wirth arts centre in Somerset and Daylesford Organic Farm in Gloucestershire. Each host set a different brief for the artist, but all offered dedicated time for experimentation and the development of new work, and unparalleled access to facilities and expertise. There will be a separate screening of a half hour film which documents these residencies.

An exhibition 'Young Shoots' brought together the results of all residencies and is being shown across the South West, with a special presence over this summer in Bristol during its year as European Green Capital. Here are some photographs of the exhibitions and of the activities that accompanied them at the Create centre in Bristol.

A second exhibition 'Deep Roots' by a number of established international artists whose work has engaged with soils, sometimes over several decades, was launched at Falmouth Art Gallery in September and will go to Plymouth University in 2016:

The work of Paolo Barrile (1925-2008) was rarely exhibited outside of Italy during his lifetime and this is the first time a group of his works from the 'Message Earth' project has been shown in the UK.

A survey of work by Mel Chin (b.1951) has recently been shown in a number of American museums. He is best known for his 'Revival Field' project and is lending work which has never previously been exhibited.

The work of herman de vries (b.1931) is currently on show at the Venice Biennale in the Dutch pavilion. His 'earth rubbings' are made from samples of coloured soils collected from around the world.

The work of Richard Long (b.1945) from Bristol is being celebrated in a major exhibition at Arnolfini/Bristol this year. He creates his art out of his walking experiences and this includes drawings using collected muds.

A major survey of work by Cuban American Ana Mendieta (1948-85) was shown in London in 2013. We will be showing videos from her 'Silueta' series, filmed using her own silhouette in nature.

The group of works by American artist Claire Pentecost (b.1956) were previously shown at Documenta in 2012 when she proposed a new system of value based on living soil ingots.