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Jonathan Luckhurst

@jonathanluckhurst

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Deep time echoes ○ Proposals for Reimagined Futures @van_biennale

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Work in progress. As an evolution of Proposals for Reimagined Futures, Unmade Earth speaks to that which has been undone but also the potential of that which has yet to be made.

Unmade Earth is proposed as a series of dynamic, evolving, performative and temporal works that begin as immersive installations and merge with the landscape at the end of their lifecycles. Each work is inherently connected to the others, creating a collective narrative about Earth’s history, planetary adaptation and regenerative practices.

Pictured:
Unmade Earth ii (architectural visualization)
Plastic panels, fungi, volcanic sand, mist, bio-electric sensors, sonified seismic data, speakers

#PublicArtProposal
#FutureCities
#ArtAndEcologyResearch
#InstallationArt
#EnvironmentalArt by @jonathanluckhurst

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3 months ago

Work in progress. As an evolution of Proposals for Reimagined Futures, Unmade Earth speaks to that which has been undone but also the potential of that which has yet to be made.

Unmade Earth is proposed as a series of dynamic, evolving, performative and temporal works that begin as immersive installations and merge with the landscape at the end of their lifecycles. Each work is inherently connected to the others, creating a collective narrative about Earth’s history, planetary adaptation and regenerative practices.

Pictured:
Unmade Earth i (architectural visualization, work in progress)
Vivarium, calcium carbonate, decaying wood, mist, sonified seismic data, speakers

#PublicArtProposal
#FutureCities
#ArtAndEcologyResearch
#InstallationArt
#EnvironmentalArt by @jonathanluckhurst

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3 months ago

Many thanks to Alison Powell for the opportunity to present my work in Bristol, alongside Dr. Fidel Meraz, as part of the Phylum Artist Talks series.

Photo © Greg Morrison, @mgbmorrison88

@alisonpowell.curator @van_biennale

#PublicArtProposal
#FutureCities
#ArtAndEcologyResearch
#RegenerativeArt
#EnvironmentalArt taken in Bristol, United Kingdom by @jonathanluckhurst

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3 months ago

I am glad to contribute to the Phylum Artist Talk series alongside Dr. Fidel Meraz in Bristol, UK on May 28. Curated by Alison Powell @alisonpowell.curator

Phylum Vol. II presents a transnational conversation on art, architecture and design. Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of England, Dr Fidel Meraz and Canadian artist, Jonathan Luckhurst, explore architecture as not only a built space, but as an arena for reimagining a more sustainable and inclusive world. Jonathan Luckhurst will present Proposals for Reimagined Futures, his current body of work that draws on deep time ecological strategies to suggest how both humans and the Earth might respond to the current environmental crisis. Our second speaker, Dr Fidel Meraz, will highlight Bristol's local architectural context through his photography and research surrounding the Trinity Art Centre's new location to be housed in the historic Jacob Wells Baths building.

May 28 at 7 pm at the Trinity Centre, Bristol, UK. @bristoltrinity Tickets: Link in bio.

#phylumartisttalks #artisttalk #trinityartscentre
#bristolarts taken in Bristol, United Kingdom by @jonathanluckhurst

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4 months ago

Across Earth’s geologic history, layers of ancient soil have turned to rock, preserving traces of past climates and life forms. Today, within these layers exists coal, a sedimentary remnant of prehistoric biomes, extracted and burned for fuel — as temperatures rise, forests burn. Ash and charcoal remain, returning carbon to the soil while nurturing new life to take form.

In Otherground II, an underground chamber is infused with charcoal to grow plants. Known as biochar, this carbon-rich substrate forms naturally when vegetation smoulders on forest floors, its pores providing space for beneficial microorganisms to establish while also improving soil health and allowing plant life to flourish.

Otherground II is a connector — a living archive, holding memories of preservation, disturbance and renewal — offering a space for reflection, alluding to unknown future outcomes both destructive and healing.

- Excerpt from Volume 6 / Proposals for Reimagined Futures. View the entire project through the link in bio.

@van_biennale

#PublicArtProposal
#FutureCities
#ArtAndEcologyResearch
#RegenerativeArt
#EnvironmentalArt by @jonathanluckhurst

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5 months ago

Otherground is biomimicry, a deep time echo of pioneer species responding to ecological distress. Speaking at once to the adaptive capabilities of organisms and the ingenuity of human technologies that nurture life, Otherground reflects on the Symbiocene and on renewed relationships between human and non-human life forms.

View the entire project through the link in bio.

#PublicArtProposal
#FutureCities
#ArtAndEcologyResearch
#Biomimicry
#LandArt by @jonathanluckhurst

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5 months ago

Otherground is biomimicry, a deep time echo of pioneer species responding to ecological distress. Speaking at once to the adaptive capabilities of organisms and the ingenuity of human technologies that nurture life, Otherground reflects on the Symbiocene and on renewed relationships between human and non-human life forms.

View the entire project through the link in bio.

#PublicArtProposal
#FutureCities
#ArtAndEcologyResearch
#Biomimicry
#LandArt by @jonathanluckhurst

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6 months ago

Otherground is biomimicry, a deep time echo of pioneer species responding to ecological distress. Speaking at once to the adaptive capabilities of organisms and the ingenuity of human technologies that nurture life, Otherground reflects on the Symbiocene and on renewed relationships between human and non-human life forms.

View the entire project through the link in bio.

#PublicArtProposal
#FutureCities
#ArtAndEcologyResearch
#Biomimicry
#LandArt by @jonathanluckhurst

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6 months ago

After an ecological catastrophe, it is the opportunists that arise first — the pioneer species, the modifiers of the environment that make the Earth habitable once again.

66 million years ago, three quarters of plant and animal species on Earth perished during the Cretaceous—Paleogene (K—Pg) extinction event. Dust, ash and soot filled the atmosphere, darkening the skies for up to 10 years. Temperatures plunged, and acid rain damaged soils while acidifying rivers and lakes across the globe.

Ferns, mosses and liverworts, with their ability to withstand these harsh conditions, were the first plants to return. In the fossil record, a well documented fern spike appears just three to five years after the K—Pg event.

Conifers and angiosperms endured in refugia or as dormant seeds, reappearing as conditions stabilized. Finally, only after the skies cleared did sunlight return, allowing ecosystems to diversify into the biosphere that now exists.

Today, in the midst of Earth’s sixth mass extinction event, one in which the rate of species loss is up to 10,000 times the natural background rate, how can we regenerate what is near to becoming lost?

In Otherground, a trench sits 10 feet below the surface of the Earth. Upon entry, viewers encounter a subterranean canopy, a botanical strata of plants adapted to low-light conditions. Using ferns as markers of ecological reset, the work becomes simultaneously dystopian — speaking to containment, a future in which life is forced to take shelter — and regenerative, a therapeutic oasis that nurtures life.

Moving upwards from the ground, viewers observe cycads with their armoured and repetitive geometry, giving rise to memory, strength and resiliency. Next, angiosperms: primitive flowering trees, symbols of diversification. And finally vines: connectors that thread each layer together, evoking entanglement and interdependence.

Otherground offers a reflection on deep time, fragility, ecological crisis, human ingenuity and the resiliency of nature. A marker of co-evolution between humans and the natural world, inducing notions of adaptation through catastrophe and the desire for restorative futures.

#JonathanLuckhurst by @jonathanluckhurst

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6 months ago

Mangroves have an important role in the cycling of carbon between the ground and the atmosphere, storing many times more carbon per unit area than terrestrial plants. In order to distinguish this form of carbon sequestration from that of land-based plants, it is referred to as “blue carbon.”

In relation to ecosystems, mangroves filter pollutants that originate on land — preventing them from reaching deep waters. Mangroves also support a large diversity of wildlife such as tigers, crocodiles, otters, turtles, birds and insects and also act as nurseries for fish.

The role of mangroves in maintaining the balance of Earth’s ecosystems cannot be understated; their use in habitat revitalization initiatives should be implemented wherever possible.

- Excerpt from Volume 4 / Proposals for Reimagined Futures. View the entire project through the link in bio.

First image: © Irsam Soetarto / Ocean Image Bank, courtesy of Mangrove Action Project.

#LandArt #Ecology #RegenerativeArt #Biomimicry #FutureCities by @jonathanluckhurst

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6 months ago

2.7 billion years ago, limestone began to form in Earth’s microbial-rich oceans — layers of ancient sea life and carbon settling into stone. In the Late Cretaceous, some 2.6 billion years later, mangroves emerged: marked by their divergence from terrestrial forests and by their ability to thrive in aquatic, saline and anaerobic environments.

19 million years later, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum brought one of the most extreme warming events in Earth’s history. Temperatures surged by 8°C. Sea levels rose. And yet, mangroves flourished, advancing into new latitudes as tropical coastlines expanded.

Today, the carbon once trapped in ancient limestone is released as we burn it to make cement; just as coal was the driver of the industrial revolution, limestone has become a driver of the modern era, allowing for the creation of humanity’s most ubiquitous building material, concrete.

As cities and industry expand, mangroves retreat. These coastal forests, powerful carbon sinks which once survived mass extinction, now face collapse. Despite their embodiment of resiliency, they are now among the most threatened ecosystems on Earth.

In Blue Carbon, a limestone-block form gathers sunlight into its interior, the floor of which is flooded with water. A single mangrove grows in the centre.

The work has double meaning, at once alluding to the effects of anthropogenic climate change and the hope of regeneration. In Blue Carbon this contrast — the inert weight of history versus the dynamic potential of life — unfolds against the backdrop of an uncertain future.

- Excerpt from Volume 4 / Proposals for Reimagined Futures. View the entire project through the link in bio.

#PublicArtProposal
#FutureCities
#ArtAndEcologyResearch
#RegenerativeArt
#EnvironmentalArt by @jonathanluckhurst

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6 months ago

Shifting Origins / Proposals for Reimagined Futures. View the entire project through the link in bio.

#publicartproposal #futurecities #agroecology #regenerativeart #landart by @jonathanluckhurst

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6 months ago