AVALONIA
TOPOGRAPHIES OF IMPACT
July 2022
Photo by Eric de VriesAlong the mining region of the Ruhr in Germany, Camila Chebez encounters Avalonia: an abandoned sandstone quarry that has turned into a popular climbing crag. Sharing its name with a micro-drifting continent from the Palaeozoic era, this site beckons for a closer look at its porous textures, which archive a deep history of impacting surfaces:
continents clashing continents,
machines extracting stones,
bodies climbing rocks,
rocks guiding movements.
Building upon the haptic qualities of the embodied practice of rock climbing, this work is an invitation to (re)explore an Earth too often figured as mute and inert, a wasteland in waiting. By playing with surfaces as a point of contact and projections as a collective memory, Avalonia Topographies of Impact puzzles together a narrative where ruins can become playgrounds for more-than-human encounters.
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Photos 1) & 2)by Haru Legouge, 3)by Eric de Vries 4)by Sofia Paglilla.
Do you trust
the technology of your senses
and the magnetism of the rock
to take you through a process of oscillation,
between pulling away and coming closer again?
Encompassed by its porous body,
Avalonia’s spirit permeates.
To lay your hands on its skin
is to tap into its many voices,
to drag your fingers
is to stir its textures.
So approach and listen
to its tectonic like rhythms,
that challenges our very feet
into a different dance with the cosmos.
MEDIUM-Interactive video installation using motion tracking sensors, contact mikes, projection mapping and non-newtonian fluid.
EXHIBITED AT
FURTHER READINGS
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Live Reading at NDSM Amsterdam during the Pre-Launch Event for Neometabolism Utopian Thinking Research Capsule: Season 2. October 2022. Photos by Haru Legouge
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Thesis Becoming Matter: A Matter of Perspectives co-designed with Isabel Pereira. Photo by Floris Meijer.
continents clashing continents,
machines extracting stones,
bodies climbing rocks,
rocks guiding movements.
Building upon the haptic qualities of the embodied practice of rock climbing, this work is an invitation to (re)explore an Earth too often figured as mute and inert, a wasteland in waiting. By playing with surfaces as a point of contact and projections as a collective memory, Avalonia Topographies of Impact puzzles together a narrative where ruins can become playgrounds for more-than-human encounters.
Photos 1) & 2)by Haru Legouge, 3)by Eric de Vries 4)by Sofia Paglilla.
Do you trust
the technology of your senses
and the magnetism of the rock
to take you through a process of oscillation,
between pulling away and coming closer again?
Encompassed by its porous body,
Avalonia’s spirit permeates.
To lay your hands on its skin
is to tap into its many voices,
to drag your fingers
is to stir its textures.
So approach and listen
to its tectonic like rhythms,
that challenges our very feet
into a different dance with the cosmos.
MEDIUM-Interactive video installation using motion tracking sensors, contact mikes, projection mapping and non-newtonian fluid.
EXHIBITED AT
FURTHER READINGS
