Sea, Soil, Stone: A Summer Show
Frith Street Gallery is delighted to present Sea, Soil, Stone, a summer exhibition by Frith Street Gallery artists. Spanning the past two decades, the works here explore our symbiotic relationship with the environment, reflected in recent campaigns to change the dictionary definition of ‘nature’ to include humans, and ongoing research into the complex relationships between fungi, trees and people. It is both sobering and joyous to consider how many political regimes rise and fall as the earth endures. We currently exist in the Anthropocene; a time defined by the irreversible damage we have caused to the planet. We have exploited and polluted the soil, the ocean, and the mountains, yet Gaia theory proposes that the planet will continue long after we are gone.
This show offers a hopeful reflection upon the fundamental co-dependence of human beings and the landscape, the timescale of human life – a mere moment in comparison to the life span of planet earth – and our expressions of deep reverence for our environment. Artists are frequently drawn to the dichotomies of the natural world; mountains can be sublime yet deadly, plants can be both medicine and poison. They are intrigued by, and seek to document, the wild beauty of nature, as well as our attempts to tame and exploit it through interventions from horticultural to industrial, at times beautiful and awe-inspiring, at others, horrifying. It is humbling that our cultural achievements will become ruins and be swept away. Famed poets will feed the grass, once avant-garde architectural constructions, will be eroded by the tides, while shoes and flippers will be devoured by the sea. Technology has enabled the human destruction of the natural world but conversely also allowed us to appreciate its wondrousness in technicolour detail.
The works here are roughly grouped together under their exploration of soil, sea, or stone. These are often overlapping categories, as avalanches, melt from the mountains to the sea, and estuaries bring seawater to the land.
