Time Tunnels is an immersive sculptural installation where volcanic mineral deposits, radiolarian fossils, dripping water, cast metal and carved stone become a sulfuric subterranean cave.
This exhibition is the outcome of five years of remote field research into unstable terrain around the world across glaciers, volcanoes and crude oil wells. From eruptions in Iceland, to glaciers in Aotearoa, the project has culminated near Meanjin, to explore ancient radiolarian deposits from a time when the Tweed Valley was a singular shield volcano.
Radiolarian are a plankton-like microscopic creature, whose silica exoskeletons have fossilized into ring-like formations of high-silica rock (chert) around old volcanoes. The radiolarian lived primarily around thermal vents on volcanic cones. Their fossils help to understand our environments as continually metamorphic and transformative, despite colonial misunderstandings of the ground as an inherently passive backdrop, where anthropocentric activity takes place. As an alternative experiment, Time Tunnels explores radiolarian as a genesis for transformation, an extension of volcanic and glacial research, where biology and geology have fused through the earth’s natural processes; extreme pressure, heat and erosion over millions of years.
Using only mined materials at the ‘scrapping-stage’ of their cycle (after millions of years of transformation) alongside metal melting and stone casting processes, the exhibition reflects the earth’s tectonic forces, and pays homage to radiolarian. Time Tunnels reveals the vast spatiotemporal connections between industrialisation, epistemology, multispecies relationships and the earth’s geology.
Hannah Hallam-Eames is an artist, bushland regenerator and independent researcher. Her practice explores the radical instability of the ground, in particular; crude oil wells, glaciers, and volcanoes. This research encompasses immersive installations, born from meticulous field and laboratory research conducted within environments where solid geological terrains transition rapidly into liquid states.
These immersive installations serve as tangible manifestations of the interplay between synthetic and natural materials. Using only recycled and scrap materials, they feature a diverse range of processes, including waterjet-cut and hand-carved marble, microscopic images of Martian meteorites, live cyanobacteria, volcanic minerals and recycled, chipped, and thermo-formed plastic waste. Most recently, Hallam-Eames was a fellow at the Postnatural Independent Program with the Institute for Postnatural Studies in Madrid, as well as being selected for the Ars BioArtica science and art residency program at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station in northern Finland.
Image: Lava at the Litli-Hrútur eruption, Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland, July 2023.
