“TERRA: Memory & Soil”
Victoria Pham and Joel Sherwood Spring
3 Sept → 16 Oct 2022

Joel Spring & Victoria Pham, ‘TERRA: Memory & Soil’, 2022, installation view: West Space, Collingwood Yards, 2022. Photography by Janelle Low.

TERRA: Memory & Soil, is an immersive installation project combining sound, biological-sculpture, architecture and projection.

This collaboration between artists Victoria Pham and Joel Sherwood Spring brings together critical interdisciplinary positions within their respective disciplines of evolutionary biology and architecture, bringing vastly different insights into notions of the built environment, history and legacies of colonialism.

The artists interrogate how we remember our past landscapes by transforming gallery spaces into immersive gardens. Their mission is to place indigenous knowledge and diasporic narratives in a central position for knowledge production, cultural exchange and story-telling.

she lies dormant,
awaiting the curious ear,
that listens forwards and back,
along each curling root.
shrouded by silken soil,
woven by the hand of memory,
you will find her,
in ghostly ossification. — Victoria Pham

TERRA: Memory & Soil is a West Space Commission, presented in partnership with Liquid Architecture and Centre for Projection Art. The project is supported by Arts Council England through their Developing Your Creative Practice fund.

Programs

TERRA: Mono-Poly, Thursday 13 October, 7 → 10pm

Extending TERRA: Memory + Soil through an evening of lively music, performance, poetry, projection, sonics, affects, and hospitality presented at West Space by Liquid Architecture, guest curated by Victoria Pham.

Conversation with Victoria Pham & Joel Sherwood Spring

West Space Curator Sebastian Henry-Jones spoke to the artists about the research that informed their collaboration. Watch on Offsite.

In a softly lit room, several people gather around a vibrant installation of plants growing from a mound of soil, lit in green, red, and yellow hues. One person sits near the display with their eyes closed, while a drum set sits in the background.
A group of people standing in a purple lit up room, facing a musician playing the drums. Green plants in the foreground are illuminated by a spotlight, adding contrast to the dark, intimate setting.

Victoria Pham is an Australian installation artist, composer, archaeologist and evolutionary biologist. She is a PhD Candidate in Biological Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, holding the Cambridge Trust’s International Scholarship. As a composer she has studied with Carl Vine, Richard Gill, Liza Lim and Thierry Escaich. She is represented by the Australian Music Centre as an Associate Artist.

Joel Sherwood Spring is a Wiradjuri man raised between Redfern and Alice Springs who works across research, activism, architecture, installation and speculative projects. At present, his work focuses on the contested narratives of Sydney’s and Australia’s urban culture and indigenous history in the face of ongoing colonisation.