Gertrud Hallum

My practice envisions speculative futures and ecological entanglements. Through sculpture and installation, I explore the interwoven landscapes of life and decay, questioning power structures and collaborative survival on Earth. My practice resists fixed conclusions, instead embracing decomposition as a mode of learning—where destruction becomes the seed for new possibilities. The sculptural language lingers between emergence and dissolution, reflecting the cyclical nature of existence. 

First, you are met by a row of glass reliefs held up by what resemble laboratory tripod clamps. The reliefs depict different scenes from a speculative future that came to life through the illustration of my thesis—a science/bio-fiction story titled The Valley of the Uncanny. In the glass, there are traces of glow-in-the-dark powder, leaving behind a track and a presence. Even though it only reveals itself in the darkness, it is omnipresent—like bacteria, or a thought, a dream, a memory, a speculation.