Spheroids interrogates exoplanet geologies and ecologies, to question our burgeoning interplanetary imaginary and its relationship to how we interact with the Earth. The objects will be spheroidal; biological textures and biofilms will be added to create a relationship that straddles the known and unknown, the familiar and the spectacular, the inanimate and the animate.
These geo-eco hybrid objects stand less as evocative or aspirational but as contradictions and warnings, questioning imperialist and colonialist motivations through which we have come to include these intergalactic places into our cultural imaginary as potential escapes from our own looming climate disaster.
- Envisioned collaborations: Laboratory of Statistical Biophysics, Crystal Growth Facility, Distributed Electrical Systems Lab (DESL) among others.
Joel Kuennen
Joel Kuennen (US) is an art critic, curator, editor, and artist. They received an MA in Visual and Critical Studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2010). Their art practice investigates human relationships to the earth as a means of understanding the social dynamics that can interrupt the extractive and exploitative ways in which we engage with this planet. Working through site-specific land art interventions and extensive materials research, they push back against a persistent present that blinds us to the consequences of our daily actions.