Matter, with a necessity inherent in its nature, constantly engenders thinking creatures […] thought is an intrinsic property of matter.

– Cosmology of the Spirit, Evald Ilyenkov

Infinite in time and space, the recycling and resurfacing matter of our planet creates sentient beings time and again. In the ground below our feet, geological underworlds offer a space to consider a shared planetary consciousness: the sentient and non-sentient; organic and mineral; the living, dead and those of the future.

Sophie J Williamson explores entangled ancestral voices amongst ever-turning geological matter. Reading deep-time narratives secreted amongst the permafrost, geological strata and celestial dust of outer space, how might our dialogues with deep-time redirect our futures?

Sophie J Williamson is a curator based in London. Since 2013, she has been Programme Curator (Exhibitions) at Camden Art Centre. From 2009–13, she was part of the inaugural team at Raven Row, and previously worked on various international biennales. Her writing has appeared in frieze, Art Monthly, Elephant and Aesthetica. She was Gasworks Curatorial Fellow (2016) and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Curatorial Fellow (2020).

Her anthology, Translation (Documents of Contemporary Art, Whitechapel Gallery/MIT Press) brings together writings by artists, poets, authors and theorists to reflect on the urgency of building empathy in an era of global turmoil. Her current independent research project, Undead Matter, is focused on the intimacy of dying and its dialogue with the geological.

This event will be accessed via Zoom. 

Image: Dirk Spijkers