If you’re looking for something to do or somewhere to go for some “culture”, head to York Art Gallery and visit the Strata — Rock — Dust — Stars exhibition. The exhibition showcases new media and interactive artwork inspired by William Smith’s geological map of 1815. Smith’s map was key to the development of Geology, transforming the way we understand the world and its planetary systems.
Curated by Michael Stubbs (Director of FACT, Liverpool) in partnership with York Museums Trust and York Mediale, the exhibition features works by the following artists: Isaac Julien, Agnes Meyer Brandis, Semiconductor, Phil Coy, Liz Orton, David Jacques and Ryoichi Kurokawa.
The exhibition explores scientific enquiry but also encourages us to examine the socio-political contexts and problems in which science and the pursuit of knowledge can cause, critiquing humans at the heart of our existence.
Strata — Rock — Dust — Stars is the most ambitious and largest media art exhibition that York has ever hosted. I would encourage everyone, no matter their interests, to visit. It is part of York’s first Mediale, a citywide digital arts festival for the UK’s only UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts.
At the centre of the exhibition is Isaac Julien’s Stones Against Diamonds (2015), a ten-screen photographic and video installation. The piece was inspired by a letter by Brazilian architect Linda Bo Bardi, who praised the beauty of semi-precious gems over culturally-favoured gems such as diamonds.
Shot in remote Vatnajökull region in Austurland (South East Iceland), Julien used the glistening ice caves for the film, depicting the most beautiful objects as the least precious in a conventional sense. The shoot took place over five days with the crew enduring sub-zero temperatures deep in the heart of glacial caves, formed in ice over thousands of years and accessible for only a few days a year due to the harsh climate. Julien’s work reminded me how beauty and entirely precious things can be found in unexpected places overlooked by most. Arguably, Julien is one of the most influential figures at the intersection of mixed media art and cinema today.
Having said this, my favourite artwork in the exhibition is a mixed media piece by David Jacques, Oil is the Devil’s Excrement (2017), which deploys a sinister view of the world in which we live. In contrast to the other pieces, Jacques work is arguably the most socially conscious, with a focus on politics instead of geological strata. The piece takes its title from a 1975 quote attributed to Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo (1903–1979), the former Venezuelan Minister for Energy and Founder of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries): “Ten years from now, twenty years from now, you will see; oil will bring us ruin. Oil is the Devil’s excrement.”
The artwork strongly asserts that the dramatic rise in oil production and Global Capital are inextricably linked. That both are responsible for the ‘natural resource curse’ and the exploitation of various countries from the Global South. What Jacques questions is whether our constant pursuit for energy, knowledge and our desire to thrive, is worth complete annihilation. Consisting of a video (the centre of Jacques work), a sculpture and tiled paintings, Jacques tells a haunting parable of war, poverty, pollution and conflict.
Overall, this exhibition boasts the importance of interdisciplinary thought, combining science and art to examine and reflect on our everyday actions, our own place in history and alternative landscapes. Indeed, as curator Michael Stubbs asks: “Whether striving to reach the cosmos or mining for data, copper or moon rock, are we not simply curious beings?”
Written by SJ Callender
SJ Callender is an MA student studying Global Literature and Culture. Her interests include on-screen representation, especially of minority groups, world literature and middle eastern politics.
