Dr. Margaret (Marmie) Perkins Hess Gallery
(Re)mediating Soils: Field Notes
January 30 – April 4, 2026

A collaboration between the (Re)mediating Soils research team, the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, the Yukon Art Centre, the Woodstock Art Gallery, and the McMaster Museum of Art.

(Re)mediating Soils: Field Notes is the result of a collaboration between the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, the Yukon Art Centre, the Woodstock Art Gallery, and the McMaster Museum of Art. This is the first exhibition in a series that will be presented across Canada. Funded by a SSHRC grant, the project includes residencies in Treaty 7/Alberta, the Yukon, and Ontario that bring artists, scientists, cultural scholars, gardeners, and farmers together to focus on soil as a relational medium.  Soil is so much more that just dirt, soil is a process – it is the residue of actions across periods of time, and it is necessary for the future of this planet. As an avid gardener, I know that one derives pleasure and gleans so much information from digging and studying the various layers. Soil is home to microorganisms, fungi, insects, and plants, all of which make life on earth possible.

The (Re)mediating Soils research project arises from understanding that there is much in common between art and soil: both encourage us to slow down, to observe closely, and to appreciate the small details. We are also aware that soil isn’t flashy, it doesn’t demand respect nor benefit from charismatic species that grab the spotlight. Our research team wants to spark interdisciplinary conversations and give soil the attention it deserves, and the four art galleries want to support artists making artworks that address, and play with, the ways soil and art intersect. There will be some of the same artwork that travels to all the exhibitions in combination with custom installations for each location. For ULethbridge, Beany Dootjes is presenting jars of preserves with veggies, berries, and fruit from her urban garden and Api’soomaahka is sharing his expert knowledge about Blackfoot land, minerals, and plants.

Josephine Mills

Director/Curator, ULethbridge Art Gallery

What kind of crisis is the soil crisis? How can art and science work together with community in response? What must change—socially, politically, culturally, economically—for soils to thrive?

The artists in this exhibition engage in grounded research with scientists, farmers, conservation workers, and Indigenous knowledge holders to imagine new and diverse ways of being, knowing, and making with soils.

Scientists and policymakers have declared a global soil crisis. Soils, which are vital sources of food, infrastructure, and climate regulation, are being depleted faster than they are being restored. Current responses favour biotechnical solutions. Drawing on fieldwork in Yukon, Ontario, and Alberta, this transdisciplinary exhibition expands the range of possibility, asking that we pay attention to soils in all their complexity—social and ecological.

The works in this exhibition help to reframe the soil crisis as a crisis of relation. This suggests that the protection and restoration of soils cannot be separated from the protection and restoration of relationships—human and non-human. Moving through the gallery space, we are invited to consider soil from various perspectives, at various scales, through various senses. Through these encounters, we may learn to see what was previously invisible, listen to what was previously inaudible, and start our relationship with soils anew.

Katherine Lawless (University of Calgary),

(Re)mediating Soils Project Lead