NEOMINERALIA: 2023 Curatorial Fellowship

Curatorial Fellowship 2023

NEO MINERALIA

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curated by Oscar Salguero

Curatorial Fellowship 2023 / Oscar Salguero

Curatorial Fellowship 2023 / Oscar Salguero

NEO MINERALIA

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curated by Oscar Salguero NEW YORK, NY

Curatorial Fellowship 2023 / Curatorial Statement

Table of Contents

07.................. Curatorial Statement

by Oscar Salguero 14 �����������������������������������Rock Guide 22............. NEO MINERALIA Library

Curatorial Statement

By Oscar Salguero /

24................... Exhibition Checklist 26..................... Acknowledgements

2023 Curatorial Fellow

“Geologists have a saying – rocks remember.” — Neil Armstrong

Intro Our collective story is one of progress with and alongside rocks. This sediment of successive episodes begins with the Stone Age, continues its materialization in the crystals of our smartphone screens, and extends across planets as rovers search for rare minerals among boulders on Mars.

A rock is an artifact of deep time. It can be turned into a tool; building matter; an object of magic, veneration or study.

In any case, it remains also an entity in its own right, though we have subjected it to extraction, commercialization, and control.

Artists are no strangers to this geological inquiry. From ancient petroglyphs and scholars’ rocks to the works of Isamu Noguchi, a mystical fascination for rocks has long been part of the story of sculpture, and it continues across creative practices to this day.

All photos are by Benjamin James

cover: Sae Honda, “Yoro,” 2016-22. Courtesy of the Artist.

Roberts unless otherwise noted.

Left: Silvia Noronha, “Shifting Geologies #1,” 2020-22.

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Curatorial Fellowship 2023 /

Curatorial Statement

NEO MINERALIA maps this continuing exploration, presenting a new generation of artists across the globe who are reimagining our relationship with rocks. Through craft and speculative fiction, they transform rocks from passive aggregates of minerals into metaphorical aggregates of data. In their hands, a rock may become a vessel, a warning of ecological disturbances, or a portal into alternative futures.

New classifications

above: Agnieszka Kurant, “Sentimentite #2160,” 2022.

Geologists classify rocks into three types: Igneous (rocks solidified from lava or magma), Metamorphic (former rocks modified by intense heat and/ or pressure), and Sedimentary (rocks that result from accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles).

NEO MINERALIA proposes that the Anthropocene – the era of geological time defined by human influence on the climate and environment – has introduced two new types of rocks: Synthetic and Digital.

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Synthetic rocks refers to hybrid rocks derived from the intentional or accidental blending of natural (soil, organic) and human-manufactured matter (e-waste, plastic, etc). Their manifestation is physical, and may be found either out in nature or near human settlements. The first recorded examples are “plastiglomerates,” hybrid plastic-rocks found in Hawaii in 2006.

Digital rocks refers to rock formations that exclusively inhabit virtual worlds (video games, digital platforms, etc). Their forms and textures are visually rendered through 3D modeling and/or AI systems. Although their manifestation is primarily virtual, they still rely on physical devices and displays.

For example, LCD screens are composed of crystals and minerals such as galena, quartz, and pyromorphite.

The exhibition surveys artistic interpretations of these new types of rock. The location of the show in Asheville, North Carolina, adds a special connotation to the project. Geographically, Asheville belongs to the Blue Ridge Mountains, one of the oldest mountain ranges in the continent; historically, the Center for Craft is based in the same city as the archives of the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), one of the world’s largest collections of climate data.

top: Hoonida Kim, “Stones for decoding: NEO Suseok #01,” 2021.

Bottom: Edhv Studio, “Snow _ Rock #037,” 2021.

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Curatorial Fellowship 2023 /

Curatorial Statement

Stone Craft: from a representational to a pre-authorial thing A history of artistic expression involving rocks across eras and geographic locations leads to two distinct and rather opposing methodologies: artists who transform rocks and artists who contemplate them.

The transformation of rocks may be figurative or abstract. It is a practice dating back to the first petroglyphs (carved figures on rocks) produced 40,000 years ago. In recent centuries, stone has become a preferred material for representational art: from Michelangelo carving marble statues in the likeness of man, to Pablo Picasso’s granite sculptures of female figures.

Artists’ contemplation of rocks generally involves the recontextualization of pre-existing rocks. This approach includes works such as scholars’ rocks, which are prized for their aesthetic qualities (their resemblance to landscapes, special textures, etc.).

More recently, land artists like Michael Heizer have emphasized the monumentality and overwhelming mystery of rocks by placing boulders in unexpected private or public contexts.

Perhaps the works of twentieth-century Korean artist Park Hyun-ki signaled a preamble to the projects presented in NEO MINERALIA. In his 1980s series Untitled (TV Stone Pagoda), Hyun-ki stacked TV monitors displaying images of stones surrounded by stacks of natural stones as well as artificial, resin-based replicas of stones.

He foresaw a tension between material reality and immaterial virtuality, and anticipated a preoccupation with the boundaries of nature and post-nature (synthetic and digital realities) that has come to influence a majority of artistic practices in the early twenty-first century.

NEO MINERALIA NEO MINERALIA encompasses rock-works conceptualized and produced within the last five years by artists stemming from places as varied as Mexico, Poland, the United States, Japan, Australia, Brazil, and South Korea. Conceptually, many of them owe inspiration to theoretical perspectives that have surfaced in recent decades such as posthumanities, new materialism, and object-oriented ontology, as well as ongoing research in the areas of artificial intelligence, indigenous wisdom, and ecology.

In a significant departure from previous artists who have worked with geological matter, this contemporary wave is not interested in merely transforming or contemplating (or re-contextualizing) existing rocks, but rather in mimicking or simulating rocks as an exercise in embodying alternative realities (via synthetic or digital means). The artists attempt to reproduce a rock as a pre-authorial thing: a specimen whose form is not intended to reflect human aesthetic aspirations, but rather aims to be an anonymous and formless agent, as un-designed as a natural rock.

Above: NEO MINERALIA main display view. p.12: Installation detail, NEO MINERALIA.

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Curatorial Statement

A rock as a metaphor Centuries of mineral extraction, mass industrial production, and pollution have contributed to imbalance at a planetary scale, affecting both human and nonhuman ecologies. The results are “hyperobjects,” vast, unknowable “things” that are larger than humanity itself: plastics, toxic radiation, capital flows, AI, and other entities that escape our control and that inevitably register in the geological strata of our era. The artists highlighted in this exhibition channel new uncertainties and possibilities in the form of synthetic rocks (embedded with electronic waste or sediments of automotive paint from old factories) or digital rocks (“mined” from virtual worlds, or derived from AI / machine-learning models).

Perhaps the rock-works in NEO MINERALIA are simulations of our future. Craft in the service of make believe. Glimpses into worlds that will outlive us. Reminders of the fragility of our temporality.

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“On an inhumanly large timescale, rocks behave like liquids, coming and going, moving, shifting, melting. Rocks fail to sit there doing nothing.”

— Timothy Morton

Curatorial Fellowship 2023 /

ROCK GUIDE

Rock Guide: NEO MINERALIA Library

The following is an evolving atlas of Anthropocenic rocks and minerals formed in the first quarter of the twenty-first century. The samples highlighted correspond to either of these two types: • Synthetic Rocks • Digital Rocks Each specimen is presented with a name and description, as well as data regarding composition and the location where the artifact was first formed.

Left: Agnieszka Kurant, “Post-Fordite,” 2022.

Above Left: Thibault Brunet, Cap Gris Nez, 2022.

Above right: Edhv Studio, “Digital Geology,” 2021.

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ROCK GUIDE

Synthetic Rocks

geology might look like thousands of years ahead. Shifting Geologies does not paint a dystopian picture of a supposed future; rather, it speculates on how it might physically manifest. Composition: Soil samples, waste materials (plastics, electronics, metal), building debris. Location: 52.5200° N, 13.4050° E Type: Synthetic Rock Name: Yoro Author: Sae Honda (JP) Formed: 2016–22

Type: Synthetic Rock Name: stones for decoding:

Description: Inspired by the discovery of “plastiglomerates,” a new kind of rock containing plastic fragments (first found in Hawaii, ca. 2006), Honda compresses street-found debris (plastic bags, litter, discarded man-made matter) into unique stones, specific to their localities, which may be appreciated in the future as precious artifacts. Composition: Discarded polypropylene bottle caps, plastic bags, printed labels, a twig. Location: 35.6762° N, 139.6503° E

Type: Synthetic Rock Name: Shifting Geologies #3 Author: Silvia Noronha (BR)

NEO Suseok #01 Author: Hoonida Kim (KR) Formed: 2022

Description: Informed by traditional Korean viewing stones or scholar’s stones, “suseok,” Kim has developed a series of 3D sand-printed rocks whose forms result from a digital blend of 3D-scanned rocks found in Seoul. When placed in a custom turntable, Neo Suseok’s contours can be decoded via a ToF Sensor (range imaging system), which reads the shape of the rock as sound wavelengths of field recordings captured at the location of the original scanned rock. Composition: Sand 3D print. Location: 37.5665° N, 126.9780° E

Formed: 2020–22

Description: Through a process in which found materials (electronic, plastic, natural, and inorganic) are exposed to extreme heat, Noronha imitates events of mineralogical transformation. The resulting specimens are presented as hypothetical excavated rocks, revealing traces of what human civilization leaves behind and what 16

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ROCK GUIDE

Type: Synthetic Rock Name: Tsinamekuta Author: Marcela Armas [MX] Formed: 2016–21

Description: Tsinamekuta presents a magnetic memory map of pyrrhotite, a stone known for its intense magnetism that can be found in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, a region with rural communities affected by the mining of copper, gold and silver. Crafted in the style of the traditional Wixárika beading technique, Tsinamekuta reflects on the intricate realities that a geological specimen is witness to when the mining industry deems profane an element that has ancestrally been considered sacred. Composition: Rock, colored plastic beads Location: 22.1565° N, 100.9855° W

Type: Synthetic Rock Name: 3020 - T|01, S|02, U|03 Author: Meristėma Lab / Annarita Bianco [IT] Formed: 2020–22

Description: 3020 depicts a scenario 1,000 years from now, an era in which e-waste, the physical debris of the immaterial digital era, might interfere in geological processes. The artist speculates on the emergence of a culture in which synthetic rocks will inevitably turn into precious ornaments, a melding of the natural and the postdigital. Presented here are three specimens that serve as homage to future sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks. Composition: Silver, resin, discarded USB cable Location: 40.8518° N, 14.2681° E

Type: Synthetic Rock Name: The End of the Internet Type: Synthetic Rock Name: Post-Fordite Author: Agnieszka Kurant [PL]

(As We Knew It), Shew Stone Author: Zach Blas [US] Formed: 2017

Formed: 2022

Description: Post-Fordite is a speculative rock formation made of pieces of material known as “Fordite” or “Detroit agate,” a quasigeological formation resulting from over 100 years of accumulation and fossilization of automotive paint on production lines at nowdefunct car factories around the globe. Composition: Fossilized enamel paint, epoxy resin, iron, powdered stone Location: 51.9194° N, 19.1451° E 18

Description: The book, The End of the Internet (As We Knew It), belongs to a prophet named “Nootropix,” a character in Zach Blas’s queer sci-fi film Contra-Internet. The film and project narrate an acid trip in which philosopher Ayn Rand and company are guided by an AI into a dystopian future where the reign of Silicon Valley’s elite is being violently overturned. The shew stone presented, a mix of polycrystalline silicon, belongs to an alternative Silicon Beach, CA reality, where this specimen can be found. Composition: Polycrystalline silicon piece Location: 37.3875° N, 122.0575° W 19

Curatorial Fellowship 2023 /

ROCK GUIDE

Digital Rocks Type: Digital Rock Name: Sentimentite #2160 Author: Agnieszka Kurant [PL] Formed: 2022

Description: Inspired by the way natural forces shape rocks and meteorites over deep time (a cosmic scale spanning billions of years), Sentimentite’s evolving digital forms are shaped by data points in 21st-century society (the birth of cryptocurrencies, seismic historic events, millions of harvested Twitter posts, etc.) whose parameters affect the texture, shape, color, and density of each virtual rock. A synthesis of recent human and ecological pasts adapted into speculative digital geology. Note: #2160’s digital formation corresponds to data on the first confirmed cases of the novel Coronavirus. Composition: Digital file, NFT Location: 40.7128° N, 74.0060° W

Type: Digital Rock Name: Atlas of Speculative Mineralogy, Collection I & III

Description: Atlas of Speculative Mineralogy revisits the practices of 17th- and 18th-century naturalists through contemporary neural networks and AI. First, the artist picks up natural objects (rocks) along with anthropogenic substances during expeditions to geological outcrops. Then, the specimens are used to train machine-learning models, resulting in hybrid digital mineral artifacts captioned by publicly accessible image classifier algorithms. Composition: Digital file Location: 42.6697° N, 73.7485° W

Type: Digital Rock Name: Rock _ Archway #030 Author: EDHV Studio [NL] Formed: 2021

Description: Digital Geology presents a series of digital rocks collected from virtual worlds and video games in an attempt to preserve these specimens for future generations. Their existence depends on data running on servers that in turn run on electricity generated, to some extent, by burning fossil fuel. Similarly, their manifestation – enabled by LCD screens and circuit boards – relies on minerals extracted from the real/physical world. Note: this rock is a world object mined from the game “BioShock 2” (released in 2010).Composition: Digital file, LCD screen, Raspberry Pi, power cable, HDMI cable, metal Location: 51.4231° N, 5.4623° E

Author: Pascal Glissmann [DE] Formed: 2022

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NEO MINERALIA Library

left: Justy Phillips and Margaret Woodward, “Lost Rocks Library,” 2017-21.

Top: NEO MINERALIA Library view. bottom: Thibault Brunet, Cap Gris Nez, 2022.

Curatorial Fellowship 2023 /

Exhibition Checklist

Marcela Armas

Kumoma, 2016

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Mexico

Discarded plastic lids, packaging labels, a fragment of a

Tsinamekuta, 2016–21

seashell

Rock, colored plastic beads Futs, 2022 Annarita Bianco / Meristėma Lab

Discarded polypropylene bottle caps, plastic bags, a piece

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of packing tape, sand

Italy T|01, S|02, U|03 from the 3020 series, 2020–22 Silver, resin, discarded USB cable

Halo, 2022 Discarded polypropylene bottle caps, printed labels, a

Zach Blas /

piece of bubble wrap, a piece of copper

United States The End of the Internet (As We Knew It), Shew Stone, 2017

Hoonida Kim

Polycrystalline silicon piece

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South Korea stones for decoding: NEO Suseok #01, 2021

The End of the Internet (As We Knew It), 2017

Sand 3D print

Limited edition print publication Agnieszka Kurant Thibault Brunet /

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Poland

France

Sentimentite #2160, 2022

Cap Gris Nez, 2022

Digital file, NFT

Book, printed paper with spine made of glue and yarn Post-Fordite, 2022 EDHV Studio /

Fossilized enamel paint, epoxy resin, iron, powdered stone

Netherlands Rock _ Archway #030, Snow _ Rock #037, Magma _ Rock #023 from

Silvia Noronha

Digital Geology series, 2021

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Brazil Shifting Geologies #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, 2020–22

Digital file, LCD screen, Raspberry Pi, power cable, HDMI

Soil samples, waste materials (plastics, electronics,

cable, metal

metal), building debris

Pascal Glissmann /

United States

Justy Phillips and Margaret Woodward

Atlas of Speculative Mineralogy, Collection I & III, 2022

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Digital file

Tasmania, AU Lost Rocks Library, 2017–21 Assorted printed books

Sae Honda /

Japan Yoro, 2021 Discarded polypropylene bottle caps, plastic bags, printed labels, a twig

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acknowledgements

Curator’s Acknowledgements I would like to thank Marilyn Zapf, Sarah Darro, and Lisette Gallaher at the Center for Craft for their dedicated and thorough support during the development of this exhibition. Special thanks to Glenn Adamson, whose expertise was critical in the refinement of the concept of NEO MINERALIA. I would also like to express my gratitude to Bénédicte Thoraval for her generous assistance and insight with the installation and spatial visualization of the show; to Konrad Sanders for his craft in the construction of the displays, as well as to Carrie Helmkamp for her technical support in the set up of the scenery; to my father, Franck Salguero, for sparking the interest in minerals from an early age; to Claudia de la Torre and Corina Reynolds for their earlier support; and to Petra Lilja for inspiring me to investigate this subject in the context of posthumanities.

Finally, thank you to all the artists for trusting the vision of this project.

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Oscar Salguero is an independent curator, researcher, and archivist based in Brooklyn, NY. Salguero is the founder of Interspecies Library and is the author of Symbiocene Anthology, a series of artists’ book reviews published online via Future Based.