Slow Downs: The Art of Deep Time

Slowdowns: The Art of Deep Time is an exhibition of the work of Claudy Jongstra that explores the relationship between contemporary art, ecological processes, and material knowledge. 

The exhibition focuses on Jongstra’s distinctive practice, which integrates artistic production with regenerative agriculture, biodiversity, and collaborative craft. By working with wool from rare sheep breeds and natural dyes cultivated in her own fields, Jongstra embeds ecological processes directly into the material structure of her work. Her large-scale textile installations function as material expressions of long-term environmental and social processes.

The exhibition is structured around the concept of “deep time,” emphasising temporal frameworks that extend beyond immediate production cycles.

A sequence of four video environments presents key phases of the artist’s process—landscape, plant cultivation, material transformation, and installation—before leading into a gallery of monumental textile works. This spatial progression enables visitors to understand the artworks as the result of interconnected ecological systems.

Presented during COP17, the exhibition creates a link between artistic practice and global environmental discourse. It offers a material and experiential perspective on sustainability, complementing policy-driven discussions with an artistic approach grounded in process, collaboration, and long-term thinking.

Curator: Nazareth Karoyan