In this two-year postdoctoral research project, Karen Vermeren investigates bauxite as a material and artistic medium, asking whether our current era is transforming into a ‘bauxite climate’. Taking post-industrial landscapes in the Anthropocene as a starting point, the research explores the material’s geological trajectory, transformation, composition, properties, and technical possibilities, while questioning how we understand time and imagine new forms of spatialisation.

Through painting and drawing, Vermeren experiments with bauxite stone pigments and the possibilities of a hybrid medium situated between two and three dimensions. Complex layered works become representations of a search for ‘new land’, while the research also explores less impactful approaches to the use of raw materials.

Alongside this artistic investigation, the reflective component focuses on the visual essay, bringing spoken word and image into dialogue through an artist’s edition and source material. The project examines how these forms can articulate its discursive dimension, including the possibility of projecting an image onto a stone painting.

The research brings together material experimentation, artistic practice, and reflection to explore how stone pigments, post-industrial landscapes, and visual language might open up new ways of thinking about matter, time, and land.