The security dilemma

Oscillating between the real and the imaginary, between past, present and future, The security dilemma (2022) questions how perception affects our ecological awareness and thinking.  The plastic cloaked wheat field, transplanted into a wooden drawer on wheels, evokes a sense of a museum archive or laboratory, whilst the sounds and smells remind us of past summer evenings and the ghostly remains of the last harvest. Handmade ceramic plates are posed on top bear the imprints of soil analysis and chromatography.

This work results from a drift in conversation  between a field traumatised by industrial agriculture, academics, archivists, volunteers and materials at the World Soil Archive and Catalogue and the geopolitical issues in Ukraine and beyond. Systematic surveying of soils in England and Wales ceased in 1987 due to government funding cuts. But soil, as a living entity, is not static. Therefore any mapping is purely indicative and subject to change and degradation. Do we really know the value of our soil? With over 75% of global soils classed as substantially degraded and nearly a quarter of the world’s most fertile soil located in Ukraine, are we on the brink of a devastating global food crisis?