Unearthed 3, mixed media on cradled canvas. Artist: Brianna Harrington
What does earth sound like? This is a question that artist Brianna Harrington asks in her series Soil Song: Exploring the Decaying Vibrancy of the World’s Soil, which was on display at White Bear Center for the Arts this winter.
Harrington, an artist who has always been interested in environmentalism and our connection to nature, created this series of paintings by collecting soil from local parks and combining it with paint to create abstracted scenes. She is interested in the sound coming from the soil, a term called ecoacoustics. Healthy soil will have an abundance of worms, insects and microbes, all of which make sound. Depleted soil, on the other hand, is much quieter, with fewer life forms making a ruckus.
In the next year, Harrington hopes to continue the Soil Song series by recording the soil to see how the land has changed over time. “I’m excited to see how this idea evolves and take people on the journey of being curious about our world with me,” she says.
Ellie Fuelling is the communications manager at White Bear Center for the Arts. Learn more at whitebeararts.org.
