Nadine Baldow’s practice is informed by the current geological era, known as the Anthropocene, where traces of human activity are embedded within planet Earth.
Since 2020, her site-specific sculptures are informed by the ongoing series of Landscape Investigations – TOPOPHILIA. Until now, she investigated the rural, but culturally impacted landscapes of Ireland, Slovenia, Lithuania, and Iceland.

“A PLEASURE TO BE ALIVE focuses on the bodily experience of being in landscape – with its pleasures and its harshness alike. (...)
All landscapes, I've investigated so far carry a heavy human handprint. Iceland is no exception with its treeless land and the effects of livestock grazing, but the power of nature is highly present in this geologically young landmass.
During the process of walking the land and observing the challenging condition this young place creates, I felt drawn to the presence of mortality in this landscape. My own existence, my body feeling the land, stands in contradiction to these materials, such as bones, sculls, and horns. The remains of these dead beings indicate how these animals died – while some died of natural causes, others found their death through direct human force.
A PLEASURE TO BE ALIVE is a conglomerate of materials found in the volcanic landscapes of Iceland that tell stories about their pain and joy of existence.”

The works in this show are dedicated to my dear friend Josefine Lehner, who was moved by the Icelandic Landscape deeply.