Detail of diagram for the installation Overspill: Universal Map, 2016

Rikke Luther
1970, Aalborg, Denmark. Lives in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Berlin, Germany

In Overspill: Universal Map (2016), Rikke Luther explores the organic and concrete nature of our world, presenting the results of a study that combines a variety of interests and references to the collapse of modern concepts of progress. The installation is composed of tile panels with drawings that relate natural landscapes and environmental catastrophes to the Global Commons (the High Sea, the Atmosphere, Outer Space and the Antartica), the exploitation of which can no longer be regulated by agreements established by the United Nations after World War II. The installation also contains samples of oil and toxic mud taken from Mariana, in the State of Minas Gerais (Brazil). Along with these elements that examine our relationships with the places we inhabit (house, nation, planet), we also find a growth of myxomycetes, beings whose biological classification is uncertain. Having a peculiar type of intelligence, they are able to form into networks and feed off heavy metals, capable of depolluting contaminated soil. The final piece in the ensemble is a sculpture of a prototaxites fossil – a possible ancestor of fungi, which inhabited the Earth around 400 million years ago. These beings can be traced back to an era when the planet was dominated by other forms of intelligence.