Soho House Location

Berntson Bhattacharjee is delighted to present works by Alicja Biała for her solo exhibition, Raw Earth, Rare Earth, which is currently on display at the gallery, Biała has transformed the chapel into a synthetic wasteland; a world where plants have absorbed heavy metals from the contaminated earth, and becoming metal themselves. Bronze sculptures of cast flora grow out of the walls and up through the rocky ground, creating a dystopian yet resilient atmosphere. These everyday plants; sunflowers, thistles and nettles, are known as hyperaccumulators, and have the ability to absorb high quantities of metal from soil. They demonstrate nature’s ability to renew the land, to clean it and repair our mistakes - while warning of a world in which we have pushed past the threshold and nature has dramatically changed. Studied by scientists and nutritionists as tools for protecting against the ever-growing contamination of the earth. The ground has been covered in a material known as slag; a black sand which is a waste from industrial mining, mostly produced by the smelting and refining of metals. Although often discarded, it can be used in construction, agriculture and as insulation. The relationship between nature, our resources, and human intervention is explored in many ways in this installation, through a resounding stillness. The gallery also won the Soho House award for best booth @echosoho presented by @katebryan_art @echosoho @berntsonbhattacharjee @alicjabiala @women_in_art__ @womeninartprize_ #womeninart #womeninartprize