EDEN SPACECRAFT

This handcrafted wooden spaceship carrying an ecosystem of medicinal herbs, a futuristic fountain of stone, a pond, crystals, tubes, growlights and fog was shown as part of the retrospective exhibition EARTHSRHINE at MU Hybrid Arthouse, Eindhoven (NL).

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During the show, one large sculptural installation was created for the center of the exhibition space; the EDEN SPACECRAFT. A large wooden and plan-based sculpture carrying a living ecosystem of herbs andedible plants, a sculpture in the form of a futuristic fountain, lots of soiland fresh fog – encapsulated in a large handmade spaceship that is reminiscent of an Ark.


EDEN SPACECRAFT is based on a 2009 sketch with the same name. Thework appears to be preparing for departure or has perhaps recently arrived,carrying a cultivated idyllic eco-system. A future Ark, built especially forplants and beauty and perhaps a mysterious eco-goddess space-deity.
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"While taking inspiration from these ancient practices, the world of EARTHSHRINE simultaneously catapults the narrative into an eco-fictional future. Mystical aliens in the Matthew Barney-esque video Dirty play out their first-ever encounter with soil, while the suggestion of a spaceship landed in the space – a raised, oval structure populated by plants, mist, and a water sculpture — disrupts the notion of an ancient, sacred gathering. By introducing spaceships and alien beings, Griepink uses the sciencefiction method of estrangement. We are placed at a distance from our world and asked to see it anew. In transporting the viewer, these works also prompt to ask questions. Questions about the future. Questions about soil."

- excerpt from To Live and Die with Soil, by Georgia Kareola.

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Media + Press

• EDEN SPACECRAFT was mentioned in To Live and Die with Soil, by Georgia Kareola (English)
• Press release, EARTHSHRINE - Sensing Sacred Soils, on Digicult.it (English)
• Podcast Have we Met? Down to Earth with MU Podcasts (Dutch)   

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