SOIL: The World at Our Feet
Photo credit: SOIL: The World at Our Feet at Somerset House. Photographer Reinis Lismanis.
Group exhibition
Somerset House, Embankment Galleries, London, UK
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23 January –13 April 2025
Co-curated by The Land Gardeners, Henrietta Courtauld and Bridget Elworthy; curator and writer May Rosenthal Sloan and Claire Catterall
Somerset House presents SOIL: The World at Our Feet, a landmark exhibition unearthing the wonder of soil, its unbreakable bond to all life, and the vital role it plays in our planet’s future.
Focussing on the inter-connection of soil and all life – SOIL brings together a range of stories and responses from a group of global artists, writers and scientists. Combining sensory artworks, historical objects, scientific artefacts and documentary evidence, it sets out to inspire and educate visitors about the power and the fragility of soil, its fundamental role in human civilisation, and its remarkable potential to heal our planet. As the home of cultural innovators, this exhibition exemplifies Somerset House's role in promoting creative solutions to the biggest issues of our time, connecting creativity and the arts with wider society.
SOIL 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:
“We need to start thinking of soil as something more than just dirt. It is part of a vast range of processes without which human life would not be possible. Only in the last few years have scientists really begun to unlock the secrets of soil, and there is still so much to be discovered. With this exhibition, Somerset House continues to work at the cross section of artistic and social innovation; deeply engaging in the environmental and social issues of our time. SOIL is a chance for visitors to discover how this extraordinary, essential ecosystem – as diverse as the night sky is full of stars – sustains life on Earth, including human life.
Journeying through the extraordinary stories that soil reveals, we want visitors to see the potential of this amazing material not only to transform humankind and the planet, but also to provide an important marker for a radical new intersectional, collective and collaborative way of being.”
Participating artists include: Anya Gallaccio, Ana Mendieta, Annalee Davis, Asad Raza, Asunción Molinos Gordo, Clare Richardson, Daro Montag, Diana Scherer, Eve Tagny, Fatima Alaiwat, Fernando Laposse, France Bourely, Harun Morrison & Paul Granjon, herman de vries, Howard Sooley, Jackie Summell, Jim Richardson, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Jo Pearl, Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck, Ken Griffiths, Kim Norton, Lauren Gault, Maeve Brennan, Marguerite Humeau, Mariana Heilmann, Marshmallow Laser Feast, Michael Landy, Mike Perry, Miranda Whall, Sam Williams, Semantica (Jemma Foster and Camilla French) with Juan Cortés, Something & Son, Theo Panagopoulos, Tim Cockerill and Elze Hesse, Vivien Sansour, Wim van Egmond.
Unlearn the Plantation and Saccharum Officinarum and Queen Anne´s Lace
Annalee Davis
Annalee Davis’s work draws on intimate knowledge of the former sugar plantation in Barbados where she lives and works. Here the soil holds memories of extractive colonial violence inflicted both on enslaved people and on the land they were forced to tend.
Unlearn the Plantation acknowledges the inherent value in the biodiverse plots nurtured by enslaved Barbadian society, praised for their use value but situated within the capitalist machinery of the plantation. In Saccharum Officinarum and Queen Anne’s Lace, the structure of a sugar cane ratoon – the fresh growth that follows harvesting – stretches across the surface of a plantation paylist. Its shape resembles human lungs, suggesting the climate crisis as both internal and external reality. Meandering crochet interrupts neat rows and columns, representing the unpaid labour, knowledge and cultural inheritance of the women who have worked this land.
Artist Statement
I made these two pieces a decade apart; displayed together, a dialogue emerges between them. Sacharrum officinarum and Queens Anne’s Lace is a portrait of my parents on ledgers that establish the plantation as a place of clearly defined roles for men (land transformation through the movement of soil to receive sugar cane stalks) and women (rulers of the domestic space, makers of embroidered items for the living room and crockery for the home). Unlearn the Plantation is a response to and reaction against the ledger with its rigid rows and columns implying strict gender norms: a textile work that does not conform to the embroidered samplers women of my mother’s generation would have been instructed to follow.
I’m pleased to be featured in SOIL: The World at Our Feet, a podcast exploring soil as a witness, collaborator, and creative material. Across three episodes, artists, writers, and thinkers trace the life cycle of soil—from its role in creation and craft to its ties to history, memory, and regeneration.
