London show digs into earth as material and subject
Ten artists who dig, walk and draw with earth are sharing one room in London. The ground is under their feet and in their hands.
The exhibition is called Listening to the Earth. It is on at Drawing Room in Bermondsey, London, and it runs until 13 December, The Art Newspaper.
The show was organised by curator Hammad Nasar, the person who chooses the artists and shapes how their works meet. He brings together ten international artists from different generations. That age mix matters. Intergenerational, in plain terms, means artists at different stages of life and career, comparing notes on the same ground.
All ten treat the earth as both subject and material. In plain terms, the land is what the work is about and also what it is made from. Soil can be the topic of a drawing. It can also sit inside the drawing itself.
Many work in close, physical ways. That can mean walking across a site, picking up soil and clay, and staying with a place long enough to learn its habits, according to Drawing Room. The idea is simple. You understand ground differently when you touch it.
The question behind it all is our knotty tie to the planet. How do we use the earth? How do we care for it? How does it push back? The exhibition stays with those questions rather than giving easy answers.
Nasar has long followed drawing practices, and that interest runs through the selection. Drawing here is not only pencil on paper. It is a way of paying attention, line by line, step by step.
Drawing Room has also published Artists' Reading Lists alongside the show, according to Drawing Room. Each list gathers books and texts picked by the artists. It gives visitors a route to keep reading after they leave the gallery.
With the closing date set for 13 December, visitors have weeks rather than days to catch it. No specialist knowledge is needed.
For visitors, this means a show built around movement and touch. Expect to think about feet and hands as much as eyes. It is a small room with a large subject.
