In All of us just dust, Alex Hartley integrates recycled solar photovoltaic panels and solar thermal tubes with embedded, hand-dyed giclée photographic prints of Neolithic standing stones. The work combines solar PV panels, solar thermal tubes, Unistrut framing, acrylic paint, resin, and rock.
The panels operate simultaneously as energy collectors and as image surfaces. The standing stones—referencing Neolithic sites—are repositioned within a contemporary energy framework, forming speculative constellations across modular industrial supports.
The juxtaposition establishes a dialogue between geological duration and renewable energy infrastructure. Solar panels, designed to harvest light over decades, intersect with stone formations that have persisted for millennia. The work does not stage a simple contrast between ancient and contemporary systems; instead, it positions them within a shared material continuum—silicon, rock, sunlight.
By embedding photographic representations of standing stones into reclaimed solar technologies, Hartley foregrounds circulation and reuse: energy, matter, and image operate within overlapping loops. The installation prompts consideration of how contemporary energy systems relate to older cosmological and territorial structures, without resolving the question into metaphor.
Presented at Victoria Miro as part of Victoria Miro: 40 Years, the work situates renewable infrastructure within the spatial language of sculpture and landscape reference.
Project Info
Artist: Alex Hartley
Year: 2024
Image Credit: Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro
