Ami Clarke

Lucy Sollitt (previously Creative Director of FutureEverything) in conversation with Ami Clarke. 21st May 7-9pm. What does it mean to “meet the lough on its own terms”? And what role do art and technology play in this? Join Lucy Rose Sollit and Ami Clarke for a conversation exploring this question in context of Ami’s artwork that emphasises a more than human, symbiotic approach and Nature Directed an initiative devised and implemented by Lucy while Creative Director of FutureEverything, which rethinks creative and organisational workflows so that the Web of Life is an active participant and decision-maker. The conversation will look at how art and curatorial practices can be adapted to support the urgent work of reconnection and repair with our more-than-human kin, and the questions that emerge along the way - from who speaks for Nature and how, to how we interpret the myriad ways in which Nature “speaks” itself, and how we find a balance between human and more-than-human interests. We explore: how this pathfinding work both intersects with, and departs from, the growing Rights of Nature movement; the increasing role technologies play in mediating ecological relations and the need for deep relational and justice oriented frameworks to guide technological development; and how art and artists can navigate these questions. This event draws a long running conversation between Ami and Lucy on the entangling of art and ecology in the context of the postnatural and, and how ecological understanding informs new ways of practising art today. The talk is part of the Systems Collapse: Symbiotic Relations talks and workshops that emphasise ‘thinking through together’ how art can provide and support alternative visions and methodologies to germinate, that encourage a de-centring of the human (not de-valuing), decolonial, eco-feminist, and posthuman/more-than-human position to flourish, whilst nurturing radical new ways for rethinking sustainability. #artandecology #microbial #contemporaryart #pisthuma #morethanhuman

in 2016 we showed Invisible Adversaries by the great VALIE EXPORT, selected by Rose-Anne Gush, who gave a fabulous talk about the work. it has become one of my favourite sci-fi's of all time. Thank you VALIE EXPORT! RIP and thank you Rose-Anne for introducing it to us, and our then members. Invisible Adversaries My body actions since 1968 and my drawings illustrate the loss of communication and withdrawal from language that results when the body rejects the norm of its expression, the body is drained to become a mere particle of space which conceals its wounds, is merely an element of lifeless sculpture [photographed bodily figuration in nature and architecture], the body’s experience of space and consciousness deformed by imposed structures [my short films]. The idea and the wish grew increasingly stronger within me to shape life’s social structures [high voltage] and norms [mutilations], these invisible adversaries, the compulsion of meaning, into a metanoia of cinematic images… (VALIE EXPORT, excerpt from the Stadtkino’s progam notes no 203, “Landvermesssung – Der osterreichische Film 1970-90”) “By the mid 70’s VALIE EXPORT was one of Europe’s foremost feminist performance and installation artists. Her work in avant-garde film had already earned her the recognition of and invitation to participate in major European avant-garde film festivals. EXPORT then posed herself the task of integrating film and all of her different experimental projects in video, performance, and installation art. The result of this effort was EXPORT’s first feature film, Unsichtbare Gegner[Invisible Adversaries, 1976], a 100-minute 16mm, color film [Script: Peter Weibel in collaboration with VALIE EXPORT, Collaboration Peter Weibel]. The script became the vehicle for accommodating in vignette fashion a great number of already finished pieces.” #valieexport

the sun is desperately tryna come through this morning... here until 10am! 🧤🍃

SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS: talks and workshops during Meeting the Lough On Its Own Terms by Ami Clarke Lucy Sollitt (previously Creative Director of FutureEverything) in conversation with Ami Clarke 21st May 7-9pm What does it mean to “meet the lough on its own terms”? And what role do art and technology play in this? Join Lucy Rose Sollit and Ami Clarke for a conversation exploring this question in context of Ami’s artwork that emphasises a more than human, symbiotic approach and Nature Directed an initiative devised and implemented by Lucy while Creative Director of FutureEverything, which rethinks creative and organisational workflows so that the Web of Life is an active participant and decision-maker. The conversation will look at how art and curatorial practices can be adapted to support the urgent work of reconnection and repair with our more-than-human kin, and the questions that emerge along the way - from who speaks for Nature and how, to how we interpret the myriad ways in which Nature “speaks” itself, and how we find a balance between human and more-than-human interests. Lucy Sollitt (MPhil, BA Hons) is an experienced researcher and cultural programmer, specialising in innovatively merging art, technology, and ecosystemic change - for organisations including Serpentine Galleries, Goethe Institut, Arts Council England. Until April 2026, Lucy was Creative Director of pioneering art-tech organisation, FutureEverything, the first cultural institution to bring Nature onto its Board. details: Meeting the Lough On Its Own Terms exhibition and Ami Clarke - open until 7th June: Clarke was asked to join Friends of the Earth during the first algae bloom outbreak at Lough Neagh '23. Many conversations later it became useful for FotE to adopt her emphasis of meeting the lough on its own terms as an important step in establishing the Rights Of Nature. The work draws upon a collective writing project and conversations over 2.5 years with FotE NI and associates, druids, herbalists, campaigners, eco-lawyers engaging with ancient Irish Brehon Law, to tell of the multiple stories running through the Lough from a decolonial, more-than-human, microbial perspective.

few quick pics of stuff that caught my eye… no particular order lovely time spent with great people, it seems as if the biennale reflects something of what’s happening in the world more so than ever before, with a renewed vigour of sorts ..working backward thru the Arsenalle… the works start cross-referencing each other in lively ways (can’t remember these titles, apols in advance… ) off-site brilliant artists film prog Canicula by Foundation In Between Art Film curated by @leonardobigazzi and @alessandro.rabottini exceptional installation @lawrenceabuhamdan ’s with score by @_james_hoff paying witness to aftermath of silent protest in Belgrade disrupted by sonic weaponry other works inc brilliant Janis Rafa Baby I’m Yours, Forever, and Wang Tuo’s The Experimental Paradigm of Ownership and Autonomy v lucky to catch Minor Music At The End of the World by Saidiya Hartman with Andre Holland, Sarah Benson Okwui Okpokwasili with cont by Arthur Jafa + Precious Okovomon @ Teatro Goldoni other highlights Swiss Pavilion The Unfinished Business of Living Together with amongst others Nina Wakeford, Gianmaria Andreetta, Luca Beeler, Miriam Laura Leonardi, Lithic Alliance and Yul Tomatala yes I queued for the Austrian pav (2.5hrs with Lee and his partner who’s name I didn’t catch but he was an amazing Tasmanian puppeteer - thanks to u I approached this with considerably more insight into Florentina Holzingers practice) Brit Pavilions great painting by Lubaina Hamid - which seemed to comment on quite a lot of the themes running through the entire biennale Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI) Kefa Frederick Sempangi’s wonderful lizard thrilled to see the Post-Apocalypse Parallax, 2024, and The Prince's Manual or: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Burma Post Coup Revolution, 2024 (which is what diagrams are for btw) by Sawangwongse Yawnghwe Australian pavilion Khaled Sabsabi’s wonderfully slow animated screens and last but not least Taiwan Pavillion with the most enigmatic poly monstrous part comedy/part lecture Ly Yi-Fan’s funny, didactic, and not! account of animation - dyou want to be an animator? really weird - in a good way #inminorkeys

Thanks everyone for all the great contributions yesterday during Harun Morrison's fantastic Environmental Justice Questions Workshop! #environmentaljusticequestions #artandecollgy #symbioticrelations #environmentalart

SYSTEMS COLLAPSE: Meeting The Lough On Its Own Terms�Ami Clarke� until 7th June opening hours fri-sat 1-6pm (closed 8-10th May)�kindly supported by Arts Council England Algae blooms offer a symptom of the climate crisis that emphasises the interconnectedness of vulnerable ecosystems with human-made systems. Meeting The Lough On Its Own Terms emphasises a symbiotic approach to developing the Rights of Nature at Lough Neagh; a live ecocide, where the largest body of water in Ireland and the UK became overwhelmed by algae blooms, the complexity of which includes decades if not centuries of extractive forces and neglect. The story of evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis’s work on microbial life reveals the ideological construction of world views that bring us to a state of systems collapse today, such as neoliberalism, predicated upon Neo-Darwinist concepts of competition and the selfish gene, with her emphasis on symbiotic life, collaborative processes, and the understanding that organisms emerge in synthesis with the environment. The work draws upon a collective writing project and conversations over 2.5 years with Friends of the Earth NI and associates, druids, herbalists, campaigners, and eco-lawyers engaged with ancient Irish Brehon Law, to tell of the multiple stories running through the Lough from a decolonial, more-than-human, microbial perspective. #microbial #morethanhuman #livingwithcomplexity #artandecology

Next Thursday: Grammar of Water 6pm - 9pm: 30th April Goldsmiths: Cinema in Richard Hoggart Building   An evening of screenings, sonic performances and presentations by Ami Clarke, Anne Haaning and Ayesha Hameed, curated by Kirsten Cooke. In ‘Planetary Realism’, Josephine Berry points to a disjuncture in realism, as it is caught between the objectifying gaze of capitalism and its potential to navigate a course through ecological collapse. This breach is pictured as a site of possibility; ‘Such a disjuncture opens up a space for speculating on the prospect of an almost contradictory planetary realism - a way of seeing, sensing, responding to, and drawing into appearance an underlying, if allusive, planetary reality.’ (2025, p.14) This conference asks, what could a ‘Grammar of Water’ look, feel, read and sound like through sonics, a film screening and performative lecture. ‘Grammar of Water’ is the next stage in Kirsten Cooke’s project, Fluid Ground (2023 – ongoing). Recent output includes the curated book of artistic commissions, ‘Aqueous Humours Fluid Ground’ published by Matt’s Gallery and The Poorhouse Reading Rooms (2025); ‘Gut Feeling’, a talk with Ami Clarke at Banner Repeater, as part of the Symbiotic Relationships programme of Ami’s exhibition, ‘Meeting The Lough On Its Own Terms’ (on until 7th June 2026). Thank you to Arts Council England and Goldsmiths for funding. Link to book and conference page in bio. @mattsgallerylondon @thepoorhousereadingrooms @bannerrepeater

SYSTEMS COLLAPSE: Meeting The Lough On It's Own Terms exh until 7th June opening hours fri-sun 2-6pm kindly supported by Arts Council England Algae blooms offer a symptom of the climate crisis that emphasises the interconnectedness of vulnerable ecosystems with human-made systems. Meeting The Lough On Its Own Terms brings a symbiotic approach to developing the Rights of Nature at Lough Neagh; a live ecocide, where the largest body of water in Ireland and the UK became overwhelmed by algae blooms, brought about by decades, if not centuries, of extractive forces and neglect. ​Systems Collapse The focus on the microbial scale holds the potential to lead to a paradigm shift in thinking; a gut feeling, even, as humans recalibrate a relationship to nature from a de-centred multi-species perspective. The story of evolutionary biology unpacks the converging ideological world views that bring us to a state of systems collapse today, and how thinking in systems i.e. ‘ecological thinking’ is now vital for our very survival. The work draws upon a collective writing project and conversations over 2.5 years with Friends of the Earth NI and associates, druids, herbalists, campaigners, and eco-lawyers engaged with ancient Irish Brehon Law, to tell of the multiple stories running through the Lough from a de-colonial, more-than-human, microbial perspective. #ecologicalart #contemporaryart #videosrt #microbial #artandecology

Grammar of Water 6pm - 9pm Thursday 30th April Goldsmiths: Cinema in Richard Hoggart Building   An evening of screenings, sonic performances and presentations by Ami Clarke, Anne Haaning and Ayesha Hameed, curated by Kirsten Cooke.   ‘In composing and recomposing the sentences of this book - especially in trying to choose the appropriate verbs, I have come to see how radical a project it is to think vital materiality. It seems necessary and impossible to rewrite the default grammar of agency, a grammar that assigns activity to people and passivity to things.’ (Jane Bennett, 2009, p.119)   ‘Grammar of Water’ refers to writing as a metaphor for the way in which humans inscribe into the planet, and how the planet also writes - and is currently writing back - predominantly through water.   Astrida Neimanis describes water as being the most underestimated terraforming actor on Earth; in which the neo-liberal management of water (stocks, dams, aqueducts etc.) and the greenhouse gases (melting icecaps and permafrost) exist in tension with site-specific bodies of water and their own limits.   This watery terraforming, as writing into the planet and our human bodies, sets the stage for the ‘Grammar of Water’ conference.   Anne Haaning’s, ‘Half Hidden’ centres on an abandoned cryolite mine in Ivittuut, Greenland and examines technological development within a broader historical perspective on resource extraction and imperialism.   Ayesha Hameed’s, ‘Brown Atlantis Radio’ takes the shape of an experimental radio program that explores the entanglements across the Atlantic, between Brown and Black bodies from the African diaspora.   Ami Clarke’s, ‘Meeting The Lough On Its Own Terms’ brings a more-than-human post-natural approach to Lough Neagh - a live ecocide - via evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis’s emphasis on symbiotic life.   ‘Grammar of Water’ is the next iteration in Cooke’s project, ‘Fluid Ground’. Recent output includes the curated book of artistic commissions, ‘Aqueous Humours Fluid Ground’ published by @mattsgallerylondon @thepoorhousereadingrooms Link to book in bio

thanks @marie_louise_jones_ ! MAKE KIN NOT KINGS Part of the exhibition: Meeting The Lough On It's Own Term's @bannerrepeater we're open today until 6pm! it's proper April showers out there too - quick downpour then bright bright sunshine! reassuringly bizarre weather (for once) 🌂🌂🌂 MAKE KIN NOT KINGS brings together Donna Haraway in synergy with Ursula K Le Guin, who’s salient quote about the divine right of kings seeming unchangeable, until it did… mirrors Lynn Margulis’ urgent demand that we move on from the Neo-Darwinist / Neoliberal ‘thought collective’ as she called it, that she encountered in resistance to her paper on symbiogenesis all those decades ago. #artandecology #livingwithcomplexity #morethanhuman #rightsofnature #contemporaryart