Alice Bucknell’s work navigates the space between art, science, and ecology. It sits at a transdisciplinary intersection—between the present and the future, reality and virtual environments, and science-based research and speculative fiction.
And if you think about it, that’s what reality looks like for most of us today.
In their latest project, Staring at the Sun, which they describes as a sci-fi documentary, Bucknell explores the dark realities of solar geoengineering and questions the narratives that surround it....
I'm really sorry that the sound isn't as clean overall as I would have liked it to be.
All the sounds and audio inserts are taken from "Staring at the Sun" on site at EPFL.
Here are the show notes:
Enter the Hyper-Scientific
Cloud seeding
Tega Brain : The Environment Is Not A System
Ursula K. Le Guin
Joint Emissivity Database Initiative (JEDI)
Producer : Isabelle Reymond
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In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Precious Okoyomon. I’ve been a huge fan of their work ever since I experienced To See the Earth Before the End of the World at the Venice Biennale in 2022. The installation—named after a poem by Ed Roberson—had a deep impact on me. Precious had taken over an entire warehouse, planting invasive kudzu and sugarcane, species deeply tied to histories of colonization, creating an environment that was never the same from one day to the next—a living, breathing, immersive ecosystem. Scattered throughout the huge space were human-like sculptures made from raw wool, little ponds with snails, and black butterflies flying around—it was wild, tender, and simultaneously a little dark and slimy. The whole space transformed while the plants were taking over more and more, covering the human figures and creating a world that felt at once powerful, delicate, unruly, and full of potential.
As a gardener, poet, artist, and even a chef, Precious is deeply inspired by plants—not just as symbols of resilience, but as living witnesses to history. Their work draws connections between botany, colonization, and racialization but also looks at how nature can offer renewal, resistance, and even revolution. To me, Precious is as much a philosopher as they are an artist— a worldbuilder and a visionary who imagines and materializes new realities—offering up new ways of being. And enmeshed at the root of their worlding is always language—in the form of poetry, Precious's own writing, and inspiration from other poets.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Precious at the opening of their exhibition, One Either Oneself or Knows Oneself, at the Kunsthaus Bregenz. While the show was the catalyst for our meeting, our conversation went far beyond it, delving into Precious’s approach to art and life itself.
Before we begin, a quick note: during the interview, we mention a giant teddy bear and other soft sculptures, which are part of the Kunsthaus Bregenz exhibition. I invite listeners to check out the show images—including snapshots of the many visitors like Hans Ulrich Obrist and Precious herself lying on the enormous cuddly toy. Which, at first glance, appears to be a sweet, soft toy but on closer inspection has sharp, pointy teeth visible within its pink grin.
Ok, you’ll find all the references in the show notes. Oh! And if you can, do subscribe—that would be really helpful. I’ll try and do monthly episodes, and there are more wonderful artists coming up soon.
Show notes:
Exhibition at the Kunsthaus Bregenz
Lee Smolin : Nature Re-born
Poets: Alice Notley, Dana Ward, Tyrone Williams
"Today, I’m speaking with Laura Arminda Kingsley, a Dominican visual artist who was born in the United States and is now living and working in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland. Laura describes her work as an exploration of what it means to be human beyond race, gender norms, sexuality, and other identity constructs. Through her art, she invites us to reflect on both the vast diversity of humanity and, perhaps more importantly, on what connects us—notjust to each other, but to all living beings on this planet and beyond.
Her perspective also extends beyond our present moment, drawing from deep time and engaging with geology and the natural sciences, as well as the existentialist concept of Dasein. She takes a critical approach to disciplines likeevolutionary theory, questioning the financial and ideological forces that have shaped these fields since the 18th century.
In this interview, we will take a closer look at her latest performance, Desblanqueamiento at the San Trovaso River Presented as part of the the closing events of the Official Collateral Exhibition of the 2024 Venice Biennale curated by Rosa Sancarlo. In her performance, Laura deeply engaged with Venice and it’s past. She delved into the rich history of the African Diaspora in Venice since the Renaissance, honoring the contributions of Afro-diasporic immigrants. Through her embodied performance Desblanqueamiento, she symbolically aims to uncover the whitewashing of Italian history, where the presence of Afro-diasporic people since the 1500s has been systematically erased.
The embodied performance is a departure from Laura’s previous work, although it also touches on many of the themes that are present in her art, like the element of water,her critique of social hierarchies and the consequences of colonialism in our present-day realities.
Her performance, Desblanqueamientoat the San Trovaso River, can be seen as a decolonial act exploring themes of shared humanity while challenging the concept of perpetual foreignness. As such, Laura, through her work positionsherself and also questions the 2024 Venice Biennale theme, Foreigners Everywhere.
For the interview, I visited Laura in her home and studio. It was wonderful to see more of her work up close and so lovely for her to welcome me into her space. We began the interview by exploring why she choose the name Desblanquamiento at the San Trovaso River for the performance in Venice and what it meant in a historical and colonial context is.
Artists, references, and other things mentioned in our talk:
Desblanqueamiento at the San Trovaso River, 2024
Laura’scurrent exhibtion in Sto Domingo in CCESD
Kate Lowe : Visible Lives: Black Gondoliers and Other Black Africans in Renaissance Venice
Claire Fontaine, Foreigner Everywhere, 2006
Gentile Bellini, Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of San Lorenzo, 1500
Fred KuwornuFilm: We were Here
Calabash : Higuero
Taíno : Arawak
Yemayá Orisha of Shallow Waters
Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic
James Baldwin,Isabel Allende, H.P Lovecraft, Alejo Carpentier, Mario Vargas Llosa, E.R. Braithwaite, Octavia Butler
Producer : Isabelle Reymond
In this episode of art_biites I’m speaking with Denise Bertschi, a Swiss artist currently pursuing her research as a fellow at the Collegium Helveticum at ETH in Zurich. I’m interviewing Denise Bertschi on the occasion of her show at CAN, the Centre d’Art in Neuchâtel, Switzerland and she’s also currently participating in the exhibition *Colonial – Switzerland’s Global Entanglement* at the National Museum in Zurich, which is open until January 19th, 2025.
Denise Bertschi's work lies at the fascinating intersection of visual culture, colonial history, geopolitics, trade, and architecture. She earned her PhD at the Arts of Sciences Lab at the Department of Architecture at the EPFL in Lausanne and in 2020 she won the Manor Art Prize. In addition to her exhibitions, she’s self-published two monographic books on her research that have received the Most Beautiful Swiss Books Award in 2019 and 2022, and she’s shown her work both in Switzerland and internationally.
In this episode, we explore the artist's latest exhibitions but also give an overview of her previous work, highlighting her deep interest in the entanglements of trade, geopolitics, and the visual landscape with some of her latest work, specificall exploring the colonial history and the architectural legacy present in Neuchâtel. Her work which often starts with archival research has a distinctly activist edge—she’s driven to uncover Switzerland’s historical involvement in extractivist and discriminatory practices around the globe, and the repercussions this still has today.
Join me as we explore the dense and multifacetted work by Denise Bertschi, her research, and the stories she uncovers through her art.
Some topics discussed in this episode:
Uriel Orlow
ZHDK
EPFL
Long durée
Colonia Helvecia
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In this first episode of art_biites, I'm speaking with Dunja Herzog. Her unique background connects her deeply to South Africa, Cameroon, and Nigeria a link that traces back to her childhood, when she lived in Cameroon for two years as her parents worked in a local hospital. Since then, she has been going back and forth.
In this candid conversation, the artist reflects on the complexities of working in the Global South as someone from a privileged background. We discuss the value art creates, how it can address the inequalities and the awareness it brings to the world.
Dunja Herzog’s personal history is intertwined with larger, global stories: her family owned Oris Watches, and its connection extends to the United Trading Company (UTC), which originated from the Mission Basel, weaving her story into the broader narrative of colonialism and its aftermath. Today, we dive into these rich themes, coinciding with her first large institutional exhibition at the Art Museum in Solothurn, Switzerland.
Here are some of the topics discussed in the show:
Oris Watches
UTC United Trading Company
Susanne Wenger
Phillida Barlow
Maurice Merlauu-Ponty : Phenomenology
Achille Mbembe
Goddey Leye : The Art Bakery
Gregorious Agricola, 1556 : De Res Metallica
Johannes Praetorious, 1668 : Darstellung des Blocksbergs, in Hexenglauben und Hexenverfolgung in Hessen.