Ilana Halperin

Ilana Halperin (born 1973)[1] is an artist with an interest in the relationships between geological phenomena and daily life.

She conducts fieldwork with specialists worldwide, including mineralogists, geologists, vulcanologists and archaeologists, and creates her work by placing herself or others directly in geologically significant or active locations.

[3] This has led to collaborative works such as with the National Soils Archive in Aberdeen, who supplied Halperin with a sample of four soils from a core sample taken at Slighthouses Farm, where James Hutton, the 18th Century Scottish geologist known as the "Father of Modern Geology", lived and farmed.

Halperin used Yame Washi, the oldest Japanese handmade paper (which can last a thousand years) and ink made from two kinds of hot spring minerals collected from the hot spring Hells of Beppu (別府の地獄 Beppu no jigoku), paired with the soil samples.

[8][1] To celebrate her 30th birthday, in 2003 Halpern travelled to the Island of Heimaey off the southern coast of Iceland, to visit the Eldfell volcano which also appeared in the world in 1973, the same year as Halperin was born.