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The Writing is on the Soil

an art exhibition by Shirley Soh

Picture Gallery for the exhebition "The Writing is on the soil"

How can the concept of sustainability be understood? In theory and in practice. As we forage the resources of the finite planet, we know something has to change. Different cultures, different value systems, different stages of economic development make a one stop solution difficult to apply to the problem of depleting resources and a degraded eco-sphere. Will modern science show the way? science which has become complicated, enmeshed with industry imperatives and different cultural values towards our understanding of what is "nature". Even the question of ethics seem to pose different answers depending on where one is born, has lived and hopes to find happiness.

These issues have been on the mind of one artist based in Basel on a research residency at the Centre of Biosafety and Sustainability.

Shirley Soh, from Singapore, has been exploring transgenic crops and their agricultural applications in developing countries.

In this one-week show held at the foyer of the Pharmazentrum, University of Basel, Shirley has transformed a little room into what she calls "a safe space" to explore what sustainability means to each of us as we live in and share this finite world.

With thanks to ZMB, Biozentrum, University of Basel and, Lüchinger & Schmid AG, Zurich.

Funded by the Artists-in-Lab (AIL) project HGKZ and the KTI/CTI, Switzerland (www.artistsinlabs.ch), and NAC Singapore.