Louis Braddock Clarke

Between the Layers of Petrified Silence

10. Oktober – 16. November 2025

Opening: October 10, 2025, 5:00 p.m.
Künstlergespräch: 16. November 2025, 18:30 Uhr
Lichthaus Arnsberg

Kunstverein Arnsberg presents Between the Layers of Petrified Silence, the first solo exhibition in Germany by British artist Louis Braddock Clarke. Developed specifically for Lichthaus Arnsberg, the works combine geology, sound, technology, and speculative research. In collaboration with scientists from meteorology, acoustics, geology, and computer science, Braddock Clarke creates artistic research projects that render the invisible and inaudible dimensions of our environment tangible.

At the core of the exhibition is the newly produced two-channel multimedia installation, “Gems in Metal” (2025), consisting of FACE 001 and FACE 002. In geological practice, the term “face” refers to an exposed surface, a pit wall, or a crystal plane where direct observations, extractions, or mapping take place. “Gems in Metal” adopts this terminology to define FACE 001 and FACE 002 as two interpretive “faces” of the same work. FACE001 makes infrasound – low-frequency sound waves generated by industrial processes, mining explosions, or tectonic activities – physically perceptible. A floating stone plate is transformed into a vibrating resonant body through transducer systems and subwoofers.

Visitors experience the “sound of the Earth” not with their ears but through their bodies. The work is based on a multi-year collaboration with meteorologists and acousticians at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), who developed new methods for capturing infrasound. Fossilised whale ear bones form fragile resonators within the work: once organs of infrasound communication, they reappear in the installation as permeable listening chambers that place today’s Earth landscapes in a deeper resonance.

FACE002 employs machine vision, AI-driven algorithms, and geological data archives. On a custom-built 16:9 LED matrix with more than 2,000 LEDs, Two distinct analytical procedures scan thin sections from mining archives: The two algorithms operate in parallel: one replicates industrial techniques for ore detection, while the other searches for anomalies, patterns, and forms that defy quantification, embracing the phenomenon of pareidolia, where viewers find symbolic shapes in ambiguous stimuli. The work was developed in close collaboration with TU Delft, the Earth Simulation Lab at Utrecht University, and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, which houses one of Europe’s largest collections of geological thin sections.

An eight-channel sound composition, generated from geological data, seismic equations, and infrasound patterns, interlaces both installations and transforms the Lichthaus into an immersive resonant space. The installation unfolds as a dual-channel dialogue, where methods of cinema and geology are fused and stretched into deep time: the age of the Earth, 4.543 billion years, is translated into a 45.43-minute film.

With this exhibition, Braddock Clarke bridges local history and global research: the mining traditions of the Arnsberg region become part of a broader reflection on extraction, technological speculation, and ecological transformation. His works propose a counter-practice to extractivism: listening instead of exploiting, resonance instead of appropriation.

Louis Braddock Clarke is an artist and researcher who interweaves concepts from geology, deep-time cinema, and speculative philosophy. Listening and amplification have become key methods in his work on disrupted ecosystems. His works have been shown internationally at Rencontres Paris/Berlin, SeeyouSound, Venice Biennale Musica, Sonic Acts, Rewire, NTMoFA, Noorderlicht Biennale, Sounds of Silence, Netherlands Film Festival, FILE Brazil, Digital Arts Taipei, Macau Design Museum, MU Hybrid Art House, W139, OT301, Quartair, Stroom, Museum of Mines and Metal Brazil, WEST Museum, Het Hem, among others.

The project is curated by Yannik Güldner. He is a self-taught curator and programmer. His research focuses on the intersections between contemporary and popular culture. Alongside his freelance work, he currently leads the artistic development of the artist collective iii (instrument inventors initiative). iii is an artist-run community platform supporting new interdisciplinary artistic practices that connect performance, technology, and the human senses.

iii – instrument inventors initiative:
iii is an artist-led community platform that promotes new interdisciplinary practices that connect performance, technology, and the human senses. Emerging from the ArtScience tradition in The Hague, iii strives to reconcile technological innovation, theoretical reflection, and human experience. iii contributes to international developments in the fields of art, science, and technology, functioning both as a cultural incubator that supports research and creation and as an agency that connects creators with a broad audience through a wide (inter)national network of partners.

Between the Layers of Petrified Silence was realized by Kunstverein Arnsberg in collaboration with iii – instrument inventors initiative (The Hague) and the City of Arnsberg, with support from Medienwerk NRW. The exhibition is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. 

For further information and press material, please contact: Carola Uehlken, carolauehlken@gmail.com carolauehlken@gmail.com