HUBRIS, HUMUS | Lauren Pirie

humus
(From Latin humus, “earth”)
n. Organic matter in the soil resulting from the decomposition of plant and animal remains.

hubris
(From Greek ὕβρις)
n. Excessive arrogance or pride, especially an attitude that leads to the transgression of moral or natural limits.

Together, humus and hubris reveal one of the most complex paradoxes of our existence as human beings: the contradiction of knowing ourselves as living beings who come from the earth, and yet possessing the arrogance to ignore and destroy that which sustains and gives us life. These terms remind us that within the human condition coexist both the capacity for regeneration and the tendency to forget our origins.

The practice of Lauren Pirie (Canada, 1983) critically reflects on these human tensions between our connection to the earth and the power structures that seek to separate us from it through the extractivist practices inherent to capitalism. Through a network of sinuous, organic forms—present in her drawings, paintings, and sculptures—the artist proposes the generation of interdependent relationships between species. The works gathered in this exhibition, through their biomorphic shapes, seem to emerge from pictorial surfaces to suggest hybrid anatomies or vegetal networks, prompting reflection on the interconnectedness of roots or mycelia beneath the earth as a form of resistance to capitalism’s voracity.

In recent years, Pirie has incorporated organic materials—biodegradable textiles, soils, composts, and seeds—that introduce notions of unpredictability and adaptability, extending her practice toward processes of decomposition and regeneration. Although the biodegradable sculptures are not physically present, a video documents their transformation and the ideas that frame her practice. Thus, humility—a word derived from humus, understood as closeness to the earth and decomposition—becomes central as both an ethical and artistic gesture. In this sense, the work becomes a poetic reminder of our interdependence with the earth and the other non-human beings that inhabit this living world.

Andrea Bustillos
Curator