Slices of Dust

In this work I focus on rocks and gemstones, its collection, conservation and trade, in order to question the ambivalent relationship of man towards nature. This visual research implies the use of photography, scans and archives as visual outcomes.

There is no geological definition for the word gem, because a gem is a human creation. Minerals are formed by geologic processes in rocks in their natural environment. When we excavate precious stones, polish and cut them into specific shapes, they become gems.

When a gem is set into metal to be worn on the body it becomes a jewel.

The research is conceived and executed as an hybrid of real and imaginary, playing around with both staged and un-staged scenarios, conceived as a transit, an overflow of the limits and categories that have drawn the imaginary of the natural. 

Using a photographic language that ranges from an accurate representation – truth to nature, to a more idealized depiction on natural elements, my intention is to tell “the journey of gemstone”: which is the process that brings a stone from its birthplace (the mountain or the underground) all the way to our necklaces, museums and collections?

At a time of ecological fragility, this project is understood as a collective process to rethink the relationships between humans and non-humans, ecosystems and their environments.

This dialogue gives rise to a constellation of materials, thoughts and situated bodies that includes experience, fiction and artistic work as tools to propose new ways of interacting with the planet. 

From the sounds of an impervious forest inhabited by invisible creatures and silent rocks, to the voices that accompany us in the construction of possible worlds, post-nature becomes a parliament, a political subject and a meeting space, that unfolds as a prismatic ecology.