Portraits of soil
Winner of the Grantham Foundation for Art and the Environment's Creation Prize 2023

I question the earth beneath my feet
I instinctively follow the cloud's omen
I blow in my dark fingers
I am born of everything I name Gatien Lapointe, le temps premier, 1962

The residency at the Grantham Foundation
There are several points to this residency.
Following a call via the Grantham Foundation and their contacts in the area, I had meetings every day with local residents. I met each volunteer in their place of life, work or leisure... each person with their own practice, amateur or professional, around the land.

The first proposal was to listen together to the movement of invertebrates in the surface layer of the soil, using a micro-contact from a bioacoustics laboratory (NeuroPsi, Université Paris-Saclay). Healthy soil makes noise.

I collected a minute's worth of sounds from this. Rubbing, crackling and rattling make up a discreet but clearly audible concert. An ode to the life of the soil's micro fauna.

Each person I visited also gave me a sample of soil.
This sample, put into solution, is diffused on a filter using a process similar to silver photography, using the sun and light as a developer.
The portrait was produced in 2 copies, so that everyone who gave a little of the soil they live in would receive a portrait in exchange.

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