Between Heaven & Earth
Reformulating our Approach to the ground beneath our feet.

For this work, I was inspired by Rodin’s bronze sculpture, Saint John the Baptist (1880). The scultpure of the man points simultaneously to the ground and the sky above him. This figurative metaphor allows us to approach the touchy notion of Human being’s place on earth.

Auguste Rodin, Saint John the Baptist, Bronze cast, 1880.

Inspired by the anthropoligist Bruno Latours’ notion of the “Off-Ground” Human, inspired by off-ground agriculture. My bias is that we are in total disconnection with the ground beneath our feet. Humanity is suspended between the earth and the sky: feet on the ground and head in the stars. In today’s western societies, we are flooded with stories of societies on mars and ever more abhorrent ‘Cloud’ technologies. All of which are incredibly costful in precious ressources, rampant in C02 emissions and altogether wishful thinking if the delicate environmental balance that sustains human societies comes to shatter. An yet, we knowingly lift ourselves out from the soil and detach ourselves from the responsibility of our actions on the ground.

The disconnection leads to a systematic destruction of the environment, ecosystems and biodiversity. Our soils and their organisms have been particularly damaged. The ecological crisis confronts us with the need to reformulate our approach to the earth beneath our feet. My work attempts to denounce the dis-junction between Humans and Soil.

‘Between Heaven and Earth’ is inspired by the work of Gilles Clément, the artist and gardener who cultivates a culture of care for nature, particularly in the artwork ‘L’abécédaire de Trévarez’, a creative garden project, produced in 2017. I was intrigued by the artit’s use of mirrors. Gilles Clément’s inscribes each mirror and places them on the ground, facing upwards towards the sky. This position forces the viewer to bend and stoop to observe the poetic writing on the mirrors. Inevitably, the plants in the garden are also reflected in the mirrors and invade the space. The reflection of the face is obstructed by the plants, forcing Humans to reconnect with the ground they stand on.

Gilles Clement, ‘Toujours la vie invente’, Trevarez, 2017.

In our own interpretation of the artwork, we invite the viewer to bend and twist their body towards the mirrors placed on the ground and decorated with mushrooms. In this way, while looking at themselves in the mirrors, the viewers are bent towards the soil that reflects the sky. Yet here, the viewer is also immersed in a fungal forest.

Emma Carter Millet, Between Heaven and Earth, (mirrors and clay mushrooms), 15 x 15 cm, 2021.

This world of proliferating mushrooms emerges and invades the visual space and plunging the viewer into a world of emerging decay. By approaching the mushroom, the viewer is confronted with her own reflection, distorted by mushrooms, symbol of new life and decay. Here, the artwork engages the viewer in reformulating their approach to soil and what it means to be “a creature of the mud”.