The soil beneath our feet is often dismissed as dirt, a sullying force to avoid. And yet soil is the source of life as we know it. Its unique ecology of microbial, fungal, and plant matter has the ability to transform death into life (compost is magical!), absorb and hold water, and draw down carbon from the atmosphere. Every time we eat, we engage with soil.
Encountering the artworks in the Soil: The World at Our Feet exhibition, I was moved by the dramatic work of artist and researcher Dr. Daro Montag. The exhibition, which was on view at Somerset House in London earlier this year, explored how artists and scientists around the world are engaging with the “remarkable power and potential of soil.” Montag’s striking images are colorful and abstracted windows into the beauty and visual possibilities of collaborating with the unseen microbial communities found in soil. His series This Earth is a showcase of what he calls bioglyphs, images created by burying and exposing color film to the living ecosystems of soils.
In an article for Where the Leaves Fall, a magazine about healing relationships with nature, Dr. Montag invites us to reconnect with soil, the source of all terrestrial life. By collaborating with the myriad living things that create soil — microbes, fungi, nematodes, earthworms, to name a few — he underscores the livingness of this overlooked and neglected material. His work calls for a shift in our relationship with soil, so “that we conceive of soil not just as the ground that supports life but also as a living entity.”
Much like our bodies, which are composed of a symphony of microbial cells, that, when in balance, maintain and support our bodily systems, soil is a living entity that supports the flourishing of our planetary systems. By remembering our deep-rooted relationship with soil, we might find inspiration and appreciation for its ability to transform and nurture. The next time you have the urge to touch grass, dig a little deeper and put your fingers in the soil.