Ex Nihilo
UN1 Gallery, Berlin, Germany

Ex Nihilo follows A Crow’s Benediction, carrying the artist, their body, and their work out of a U.S. art context that could not hold them, and into one where support becomes possible. What was once released is met here with a kind of full return, as the practice begins again in a new place. It also marks the artist’s first performance in Germany.

The performance builds a temporary environment using 65,600 grams of German-produced salt, 22 candles, and 81 stones gathered from the city. Together, these materials form a space the body enters and remains within, something both structured and shifting.

The work begins as the body emerges from the salt, moving through it, pressing into it, displacing it, and slowly reshaping itself within the space. Each action carries into the next. The body stays inside what it has made, turning the process into something ritualistic.

A sense of spirituality develops through this repetition, not from rehearsal, but from the artist fully giving themselves over to the act. What once felt restricted in the U.S. is allowed to unfold here without interruption.

Ex Nihilo reflects on what it means to begin again, to rebuild a practice, a life, and a sense of purpose in a place that can finally hold it.

Photography by Katie Kearns & Getsay.