Beth Bramich

The Human Age is a hypothetical exhibition of film and video works by six contemporary artists for which I have written the catalogue. Its title refers to both the Anthropocene, a term describing our current geological epoch as one defined by the impact of humanity on the planet, and to the total age of human existence, stretching back hundreds of thousands of years into the past and also forward into multiple possible futures.

The exhibition and the accompanying publication explores how we, as human beings, experience what it is to be human and how our self-conception might be disrupted, extended, challenged and transformed by art and moving-image culture. Specifically, it is the act of being in the world, spatially and temporally, that is of concern in this exhibition. Bringing together artworks by Pierre Huyghe, Daria Martin, Nathaniel Mellors, Ben Rivers, The Otolith Group, and Thomson & Craighead, the exhibition’s three sections — The Blue Marble, The Big Toe and The Iceberg — each feature artworks that, respectively, engage with our relationship with our planet, our evolutionary origins and our potential futures.