Anicka Yi

Anicka Yi's installation at Storm King, Message from the Mud, the artist's first large-scale outdoor project, is arranged like an archaeological dig, inviting viewers to engage with concepts of deep geological time and evolutionary history through the lens of "prehistoric biofiction." This term refers to an imaginative approach to the early history of the planet, using scientific data as a jumping-off point, to envision what life might have looked like if different evolutionary histories had taken course, and what it could look like in possible futures.

Rising from a shallow artist-designed pool at the center of the excavated site are acrylic columns filled with organic matter, standing like ruins of a soil-emerging world where past, present, and future environmental timescales overlap. Utilizing a soil science technology invented in the late 1880s by Russian-Ukrainian ecologist Sergei Winogradsky, Yi combined soil and water with sources of carbon and calcium to create observable communities of microorganisms. Through exposure to sunlight and time, diverse arrays of algae, cyanobacteria, and microbial colonies emerge in layers of vibrant colors reminiscent of abstract paintings, visible through the clear surface of the columns. These soil ecosystems reveal how all life is grounded in interdependence, with each microbial community sustaining and being sustained by the others around it. By using water and soil samples sourced from Storm King's South Ponds, Yi's cultures offer a complex microbiological portrait of the landscape.

Often bringing together natural and human-made components, Yi's work explores the potential for collaboration between artists and autonomous living organisms and organic processes. Yi has said of her practice, "I seek to expand the possibilities of how we perceive ourselves and our place within the broader ecological framework. . . . Through this lens, my art becomes a space for contemplating not only what was, but what could be, in the ongoing narrative of life on Earth." With Message from the Mud, Yi extends this inquiry into the interdependence that underlies all living systems, reminding viewers that even the smallest organisms participate in the vast, unfolding story of Earth's becoming.

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