Archive
Miroslava Vecerova
Our View is Mineral
04.02.2023 – 05.03.2023
“Site specificity is like the magnetic field in this project …. it’s an observational story about the localintertidal ecosystem including its relationships specified by the presence of the sea, where dry ecosystems meet wet ecosystems, the works are about it, derived from it and at the same time situated within it”.
Basking in tidal shifts, magnetic eyes and earthly materials, Our View is Mineral brings together a sensitive congregation of projects from Miroslava Večeřová, each meditating on porous connections between human and non-human realms. Although created at different times in different settings, collectively, the works all sing the same song, the same incantation to shift our perspective. Disrupting separatist narratives between humanity and the natural world, a sense of immense intimacy is crafted by Večeřová as she revels in reciprocity, symbiosis, and kinship.
Whilst developing this body of work Večeřová dipped in and out of pools of astronomy, science-fiction, eco-psychology, and anthropology, reading the work of writers such as Jo Marchant, Vilém Flusser, David Abram, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Nastassja Martin. This fluid constellation of disciplines floods into the gallery space, reflecting Večeřová’s hunger to develop alternative frameworks and expansive ways of thinking.
Nastassja Martin’s text In the Eye of the Wild (2019) serves as a central anchor and catalyst for Večeřová, prompting the artist to embody understandings of the wild, using participation, memoir, and materiality to stretch its character.
Slipping into the role of the storyteller, Večeřová’s poem ignites the titular moving image work of the show, Our View is Mineral. Rooted firmly within a plural perspective, its stanzas lyrically pull in threads of deep time, referencing slow geological shifts; whilst its plurality, ‘our view is mineral’, signals an inextricable binding between aquatic and terrestrial beings, between minerals and mammals— echoing relationships forged within percussive lunar cycles and tidal rhythms.
The surrounding sculptures, photographs, and drawings widen the cast of characters in this ever unfolding tale, its pages lost to sea and unearthed by Večeřová. Using cuttlefish ink, chalk and clay sourced from the local Southeast Coastline, elemental materials are embedded into the very fabric of the works. Grounding the pieces with site-specificity, the physical quality of these materials affords them a sense of agency within the space.
Delivering lucid bands of colour, textural weight and even salty scents, energies and auras of liquid ecosystems enter Flatland’s site.
What emerges is a space not tethered to land or sea, but a chapel for all beings. Our View is Mineral.
To learn more about this exhibition, its ethos, and its connected projects, scan the QR code at the bottom of this page to hear from Miroslava Večeřová in her own words as she sits down with our current Curatorial Fellow Fran Painter-Fleming. A written transcript of this conversation will also be available in the gallery.