Whoever’s is the Soil

Amelia Hine

2 – 3 October 2021

‘Whoever’s is the soil’ is a translated section of the property law doctrine, Cujus est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos (Latin for "whoever's is the soil, it is theirs all the way to Heaven and all the way to Hell").

This exhibition questions our assumed ownership of the soil, and is an experiment in re-thinking the underground and the Western relationship with it as either an extractable resource or void of social and material value.

Hine visualises a richly populated subterranean world, rife with stygofauna, aquifers, and cave dwellers that stubbornly continue to thrive while urban infrastructure expands below the surface and extractive industries continue to burrow.

Read accompanying words by Marilu Melo Zurita here

A Millennia of Seepage was a collaborative effort with the musician cyberBanshee (Hannah Reardon-Smith) and was funded by a stART grant from Arts Queensland and QMusic. Support for this exhibition has been provided by the Centre for Decent Work and Industry at QUT.