The project explores the aesthetic consequences of the Anthropocene and its impact on Earth. Australian sand washed out over the course of 30,000 years has been imported to Denmark, contributing a distinctive materiality and texture shaped over millennia.

15m3 of red Australian sand spreads out across a black, painted floor, forming a wealth of topped heaps in the Sculpture Room at the exhibition venue Den Frie. This massive volume of oxide red glitters metallically in the light, and it is difficult for onlookers to decode its exact material nature. Is it some kind of spice, a pigment, or is it SAND? An alien element in this exhibition context, the sand exudes a fascinating aura of mystery, simultaneously emitting codes for something alluringly exotic and disturbingly dangerous. The sand has been formed by a 30,000-year process of leaching that has taken place ever since the last Ice Age covered an area extending from Antarctica up to the centre of Australia. The project explores the aesthetic consequences of the Anthropocene and its impact on Earth. Australian sand washed out over the course of 30,000 years has been imported to Denmark, contributing a distinctive materiality and texture shaped over millennia. The sand can be legally imported in Denmark because it is entirely devoid of biological materials. The project was developed in co-operation with Australian artist Bjorn Godwin.

Partners: Bjorn Godwin, Peter Friis, Maria Bruun, Mette Gitz-Johanssen, Jamilla Søgaard, Ernestine Gejl Wolff.