SOIL SOUL
ABRIE FOURIE (SOUTH AFRICA) ELLA ZIEGLER (GERMANY)
EXPERIEMNTAL GALLERY / CORNELL UNIVERSITY
ITHACA, NY / USA 2021
With the project SOIL SOUL by the artists Ella Ziegler and Abrie Fourie, Cornell University expands the cross-disciplinary inquiry into forward-looking art-science collaborations. Poetic reflection and scientific speculation about our environment will be presented through photography, conecptual art, poetry, fabric and installation. Soils house the largest biodiversity on the planet and at the same time is endangered by desertification and contamination.
Soil is also connected to creation stories in many belief systems, indigenous people connect to soil as a sacred element and medium, which incorporates spirits and energies, and survival of civilizations have always (and still are!) connected to soil health and its destruction. At the center of the proposed exhibition project lies the relationship of language, poetry and memory of soilscapes and how we may connect to this extraordinary territory. Soils build but also clash with civilization in the photography of Abrie Fourie. Fourie’s photographs document and detect the layers of urbanization and civilization in daily life situations.
Ella Ziegler poses questions about the human inability of sensing and recognizing. The collaboration between Ziegler, Fourie and Johannes Lehmann from the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University, is not only an inquiry into the human dimension of environmental destruction and cognition in general, but also serves as an opportunity to showcase the development of a new art-science collaboration at a fundamental level. The ensuing insights into artistic work lay bare a sensibility that allows scientific access to different ways of looking and questioning beyond monodisciplinary conversations.
Johannes Lehmann
DOES THE GROUND FEEL THE TEARS?, soil, Abrie Fourie, Ella Ziegler, 2021
APATHY FRENETIC REST text banner, 2021 Ella Ziegler
PRAIA DA BELA VISTA, PORTUGAL, COSTA DA CAPARICA, LISBON, PORTUGAL, 2015, Abrie Fourie
NOTES ON ENTROPY (EXCERPT) Abrie Fourie
ALGORTA - LA KANTERA, GETXO, BIZKAIA, SPAIN, 2021
NOTES ON ENTROPY (EXCERPT) Abrie Fourie
SCHLIEMANNSTRASSE , BERLIN, GERMANY, 2015
NOTES ON ENTROPY (EXCERPT) Abrie Fourie
RICHMOND, NORTHERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA, 202
NOTES ON ENTROPY (EXCERPT) Abrie Fourie
RICHMOND, NORTHERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA, 2021
NOTES ON ENTROPY (EXCERPT) Abrie Fourie
MONUMENT NATURAL DA PEDREIRA DO AVELINO, PORTUGAL, 2015
NOTES ON ENTROPY (EXCERPT) Abrie Fourie
RUE ASSOLANT LEFÈVRE LOTTI, MIMIZAN, FRANCE, 2021
NOTES ON ENTROPY (EXCERPT) Abrie Fourie
STEINBÄCHLER WEG, ILSHOFEN, GERMANY, 2021
LEGACY SILENT SIGNALS, text banner, Ella Ziegler, 2021
DOES THE GROUND FEEL THE TEARS?, Ella Ziegler, typewriter on gaze, 2021
TIMEZONES, Ella Ziegler, 2021
Handmade hourglasses filled with legally imported red sand from Namib Desert/Namibia and col- lected sand from an inland dune in Berlin/Wedding, Germany. This project was realized in col- laboartion with Gobabeb Namib Research Institute, Namibia with Schul-Umwelt-Zentrums (SUZ), Berlin and with Horst Tappert, Glasbläserei Tappert.
VULCANO INDEX
Ella Ziegler, 2021 Plates, textile
