Lecturer’s work at groundbreaking soil exhibition

Miranda Whall will be exhibiting as part of ‘SOIL: The World at Our Feet’ at Somerset House in London. Photo credit: Ashley Calvert, 2023

A landmark exhibition about society’s relationship with soil at Somerset House in London will feature the work of an Aberystwyth lecturer.

‘SOIL: The World at Our Feet’ aims to unearth the wonder of soil, its interconnection to all life on Earth, and the vital role it plays in our planet’s future.

Miranda Whall from Aberystwyth University’s School of Art is one of several artists whose work will encapsulate the fragile relationship between people, the planet and its soil.  She said:

“I am thrilled to be contributing to this very important and timely exhibition.  What I love about it is its ambition, scope, and reach - it's a rich compost of art, education, agriculture, science, history, horticulture, and socio-politics, which will all be interwoven and spread throughout the Embankment Gallery for three months, to hopefully engage a wide and diverse audience.”

Whall will be exhibiting four works from her ‘When Earth Speaks’ project, produced from data collected from an upland soil sensor network high in the Cambrian mountains. 

Employing ink and pinpricks on paper, Whall used the data to create a series of durational drawings, up to 10m in length, and consisting of up to 250,000 digits or over 100,000 pinpricks.  Through these ‘analogue data storage clouds’, the written numbers or pinpricks became visual landscapes suggestive of their origin source, the soil.

A section of 'Dirty Drawing'

Also included in the exhibition is the audio recording of ‘When Earth Speaks; A Dirty Ensemble’, a performance held at Aberystwyth Arts Centre in June 2024. Directed by Whall, the immersive performance involved a diverse range of artists and performers who responded to the soil sensor data.

A documentary video and interview with Whall, filmed on location in the Cambrian Mountains and at her studio, will also be screened in the gallery.

Filming with the Somerset House film crew, Pwllpeiran, November 2024. Photo by Mariecia Fraser.

‘SOIL: The World at Our Feet’ is co-curated by The Land Gardeners, Henrietta Courtauld and Bridget Elworthy, curator and writer May Rosenthal Sloan and Claire Catterall, Senior Curator at Somerset House.

Claire Catterall from Somerset House said:

“This exhibition will showcase how soil is the great interconnector, and yet how little we know about it. For too long human activities have had a detrimental effect on the health of our soil. Here, the artists are asking that we take a fresh look at this hugely important ecosystem which is living beneath our feet. Audiences can expect to see stunning artistic interventions and groundbreaking scientific practices that zooms our focus deep underground.”  

‘SOIL: The World at Our Feet’ will be on display at the Embankment Galleries, Somerset House in London from 23 January – 13 April 2025.  For tickets and further information, visit
www.somersethouse.org.uk/press/soil-world-our-feet

Miranda Whall’s ‘When Earth Speaks’ project was made possible through cross-disciplinary research funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).  ‘When Earth Speaks: A Dirty Ensemble’ was funded by the Live Arts Development Agency and Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

Photo: Ashley Calvert

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