Emily Jones at Kunstverein für Mecklenburg und Vorpommern in Schwerin

With we‘re doing alien‘s milk aren‘t we, the Kunstverein für Mecklenburg und Vorpommern in Schwerin is presenting the first institutional solo exhibition by British artist Emily Jones in Germany. The exhibition brings together new works created especially for the site of the Kunstverein, which unfold less as self-contained objects and more as ambiguous spaces of experience. In their openness to interpretation, the installations critically examine contemporary forms of coexistence and pose questions about individual and collective responsibility. In so doing, they interweave new relational connections between disciplines that are often thought of as separate: science, ecology, history, architecture, technology, archaeology, geography, cosmology, memory, and faith.

*The cesium frequency, which is used to define the SI second, is 9,192,631,770 Hz. This frequency corresponds to the microwave radiation absorbed or emitted by caesium-133 atoms at a specific hyperfine transition in their ground state.

*An atomic clock is a high-precision timekeeping device. It uses the characteristic frequencies emitted by the transitions between energy levels in atoms–usually caesium-133–to measure seconds, and provide exact time standards for science, technology and global timekeeping.

At the centre of we‘re doing alien‘s milk aren‘t we is an artistically experimental examination of the epistemic and material orders that humans have developed over the centuries in order to measure, organise, and control themselves and nature. Systems for the measurement and arrangement of time (calendars, time divisions, rhythms, epochs, time measurements); spatial order systems (coordinate systems, cartographies, border demarcations); norm-setting and standardisation systems (units of measurement such as metres, grams, litres); legal-political systems of governance (laws, constitutions, administrative systems); as well as systems of signs and symbols (writing, number and notation systems, symbols, rituals) are all an expression of a rationality characterised by Western claims to dominance and a belief in linear progress that aims to achieve predictability and control. These historically evolved structures–as dispositives of discipline and the exercise of power–not only have an effect on knowledge and the way we deal with the world, but also shape the subjects who act within them. Discipline unfolds not only through punishment, but also through reward.

*Four pairs refers to a total of eight individual elements, which are divi-ded into four groups of two elements that either correspond or match.

*Seismic tomography is a geophysical method that uses the analysis of earthquake wave propagation speeds within the Earth‘s interior to create a three-dimensional image of its internal structure. This allows differences in material properties such as density and temperature to be visualised.

Emily Jones responds to these genealogically developed contexts of influence with an aesthetics of the fragmentary, the relational, the provisional, and the speculative. Within spatial configurations that touch about these many spheres and address both physical and emotional dimensions equally, she collages sculptural, auditory, textual, and performative elements into model situations that continuously challenge these–both external and internalized–systems of control and order. Models, timekeeping systems, objects of value, and disciplinary technologies are thereby transformed into speculative spaces of possibility that open up alternative forms of care, participation, and collective–ecological, economic, and social–responsibility.

*A goose egg is a colloquial expression for the number zero, especially in the context of games or competitions when a player or team has not scored any points.

*A leap second is an additional second that is occasionally added to or subtracted from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to compensate for the difference between the very precise atomic time record, and the irregular rotation of the earth, thus ensuring that the time of day and solar time are in keeping with each other.

Her artistic repertoire of forms is fed by found objects, materials and visual languages that the artist draws from contexts such as DIY culture, collective self-organisation or educational practices. Organic materials enter into a dialogue with digitally generated forms; everyday objects encounter (mytho-)poetic narratives, creating hybrid spaces of image and meaning. Language does not act as an instrument of control or attribution, but rather as a means of shifting, multiplying or deliberately destabilising meanings.

*A water clock is an ancient timekeeping device that uses a uniformly steady flow of water from or into a container to measure the passage of time.

*A minute wheel is a gear within a clockwork mechanism that controls the movement of the minute display and which is connected to other gears to transmit the time display with precision.

As the title suggests, the exhibition we‘re doing alien‘s milk aren‘t we thus rejects clear attributions and linear interpretations and instead points to the potential of the unknown, the uninvestigated and the non-rationalisable. Aesthetic-experimental associative spaces are created in which alternative forms of togetherness and participation can be imagined and tested, beyond domination, instrumentalisation and normative attributions. This is particularly reflected in performative formats which contribute to the exhibition as a space for re(learning), and which were and are created in a cooperation between the artist, the StarterClub of the Meckelnburgisches Staatstheater, and the Kinderschutzbund Schwerin.

*An air cell is a small air bubble located in the wider end of an egg bet-ween its inner and outer membrane. It forms as the egg cools and contracts after being laid.

*A dial, or hour wheel, also historically known as a civil wheel, is a gear in a clockwork mechanism that completes a full rotation once every 12 hours and usually drives the hour hand to indicate civil time.

The first performance of the StarterClub, under the direction of theatre pedagogue Tina Koball, will take place as part of the exhibition opening on 20 June 2025 at 19:00. In addition, a summer academy for children aged 7 to 12 is planned, which will take place from 20 to 22 August 2025. The three-day workshop opens up space for imagination, creative self-development and individual forms of expression. Registrations can be made by e -mail or telephone.

*Optical clocks are high-precision timekeeping devices that utilise the frequency of light emitted or absorbed by the electrons in atoms or ions during optical (visible or near-visible) electronic transitions. In comparison to conventional microwave atomic clocks such as caesium clocks, optical clocks use much higher frequencies, enabling even more accurate and stable time measurement.

*Tidal locking refers to the condition in which a celestial body is influenced by the gravity of another body in such a way that it always shows the same face to that body. This means that its rotation period is synchronised with its orbital period–like our Moon, which always presents the same side to the Earth.