The artistic practice of Ilana Halperin (b. 1973) is characterised by a sustained interest in geological aesthetics, bringing intimate human poetics to the measurement and comprehension of deep time. She was born in the same year as the Eldfell volcano and has frequently visited Iceland within her research process since the late 1990s.

Since 2022, this new body of work has grown out of collaborative field work in geothermal and sedimentary sites across Iceland and Orkney, exploring these as “Mars analogues” that allow us to connect with Mars as our planetary sibling.

Halperin’s study of 400- million- year- old stromatolites and present day geothermal microbial activity has resulted in extremophile drawings and engravings on alabaster “inked” with soil and ochre, alongside an expansive series of watercolours sensing the palette of Mars.

Mars hosts one of the largest volcanos in the solar system, Olympus Mons, a giant which resembles a bodily orifice seen from flyby images. This is surrounded by a topography of vast canyons, craters and a coating of ubiquitous red pigment. Such geographical sculpting and mark-making forms a “chaos terrain” further informing Halperin’s latest artworks.

Through conjuring a queer feminist land art approach to the Red Planet, Halperin’s perspective provides a welcome alternative to masculine “frontier” narratives of recent Mars exploration. She is interested in Mars’s long-term geo-heritage and the ethics of making contact. Working through the geological epochs of this ancient sibling and across a range of media (drawing, sculpture, and photography) Halperin shares a working core sample of this material anatomy.

19 July 2025 at 3pm

Primer / Felt Event

Dr Catriona McAra, Lecturer in Art History at University of Aberdeen chairs a discussion between artist Ilana Halperin and Dr Claire Cousins, Reader in Earth Sciences at University of St Andrews. Spotlighting women’s contributions to planetary geology, they have recently undertaken fieldtrips to Orkney and Iceland in search of local “kin” to creatively understand the rock formations of distant Mars. Following collaborative field work in the geothermal streams above Hveragerði, they are excited to return to share their findings! For this occasion, they will also launch a limited edition etching by Ilana entitled ‘We Are All Extremophiles’. This event serves as a prologue to ‘An Anatomy of Mars’, Ilana’s upcoming exhibition opening at the LÁ Art Museum on September 13th, 2025. All welcome.

This research has been funded by UK Space Agency/ Science & Technology Facilities Council.