With Unearthed, Rahel Oberhummer focuses on the microorganisms found in the permafrost – a part of the ground that is frozen all year round – in Graubünden (Switzerland). For thousands of years, these microbes have been preserved at sub-zero temperatures in this unique ecosystem, which is currently under threat from climate change. Scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research have first collected and then artificially cultivated them.

In their laboratories, the Swiss artist harvests these microbes, which she photographs in her studio in their round preservation boxes. She follows their evolution, which is as rapid as it is hazardous: from nothingness springs life, and shapes and colours are constantly metamorphosed until resources are exhausted. Abject and attractive, these compositions become uncontrollable image subjects.