There are millennia worth of histories sewn into the soil of the site where TarraWarra Museum of Art sits. Yet the history of TarraWarra’s most recent show, The Soils, begins somewhat closer to the present in 2016. The story goes that in 2016 director Victoria Lynn invited Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) director, Charles Esche, who had visited the site many times over a number of years, to propose a project for TarraWarra’s coveted international slot—first instigated by French global-art-biennale-circuit-mainstay Pierre Huyghe’s solo show, curated by art historian Amelia Barikin back in 2015. The English-born, Dutch-dweller, best known for his biennales (São Paulo, Istanbul, etc.) and as a finding committee member for the embattled documenta fifteen, initially proposed a series of closed and private workshops as his project. These were first held on Zoom during the Covid lockdowns, and then held in-person in Healesville. From here, The Soils has morphed into an exhibition charting an expansive cartography, and one that will travel from TarraWarra to Van Abbemuseum (The Netherlands) in 2024 and then to Indonesia where an event will be hosted by Struggles for Sovereignty (Indonesia) in 2025.
Hilary Thurlow is a PhD candidate in Art History and Theory at Monash University, Naarm/Melbourne. She is currently residing in Chicago, Illinois as a Fulbright Scholar.
This review was made possible thanks to the generous support of Meridian Sculpture.
