OPEN ECO: Louise Beer, Earth, a Cosmic Spectacle/ Billions and Billions and Billions of Years (2024)

Photography can invite a planetary perspective on a familiar place or form of life. The materials that make up Earth’s landscapes and every form of life were created through billions of years of cosmic processes. Looking at Earth’s ecosystems through an astronomical and deep time lens can help us understand the extraordinary sequence of events required for this life to exist, here and now. If we consider the billions and billions and billions of years required for each form of life to exist, perhaps we can begin to see what surrounds us with a deeper sense of care and reverence.

Louise Beer is an Aotearoa New Zealand-born artist and curator based in England, whose practice explores deep time, astronomy, Earth’s environments and the climate crisis. She is currently Artist in Residence at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UCD College of Science x Mayo Dark Sky Park and Art Gene. Previous awards and commissions include a British Council Connections Through Culture Grant and a Delfina Foundation x Gaia Art Foundation Science Technology Society Associateship. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Royal West of England Academy and Tūhura Otago Museum, and her writing has been published by Routledge and Interalia.

United Kingdom
www.louisebeer.co
@louise.beer