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New Museum, New York, 28 October to 23 January
When change is afoot, we often find ourselves turning to art to make sense of it. This is the aim of the New Museum's fifth triennial, which tracks some of the profound shifts in our current global order. Perhaps optimistically, the title 'Soft Water Hard Stone', which is adapted from a Brazilian proverb, suggests that even the most subtle of forces can, over time, beget change.
A mood of quiet determination resonates across the exhibition, which features a roster of 40 emerging artists and collectives, many of whom emphasise forms of tradition and craft in their contemporary practices to grapple with the continued consequences of colonialism and late-stage capitalism. Earthly substances are present throughout - clay, soil and stone amongst other salvaged or debris-like materials - which, along with a range of other media, are intended to signify a necessary transition away from the hyper-consumerist modern world. These substances also suggest that entwined with progressive change is the process of decay: nature reclaiming her dominion over the human realm.
Among the putrefying and terrestrial works is a series of wall-mounted ceramics that sprout chanterelle petticoats and small enoki mushroom caps from slabs of deep blue stoneware. These are A Gut, A Lake, A Cell, A Sky, 2021, by Erin Jane Nelson, a collection of ceramic plates that fit together like amoebic puzzle pieces. Clusters of glaze splatters - what could be bacterial cultures under a microscope or galaxies of distant stars - are a reminder of the parallels between micro and macro universes; as above, so below. Another series, 'Pollinator's Dilemma', 2021, is a similar assembly of earthenware plates: flat ceramic surfaces that are embedded with...