Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020

Installation view: Hard Core, Mona, Tasmania, Australia, 2026. Photo by Jens Ziehe

Spat up from the belly of the earth in volcanic eruptions, lava cools rapidly to form obsidian, a congealed liquid whose reflective powers have long entranced cultures. Dark obsidian mirrors delivered omens to the Aztecs and pleasantly distorted landscapes for Romantic painters. Sculpted from large blocks of obsidian punctuated by polished concave dishes Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows unearths these complex histories and invites us to gaze beyond the surface into deep time.

Text by Dehlia Hannah

All works by Julian Charrière. Images: ©The Artist / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020, detail. Photo by Jens Ziehe

Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020, detail

Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020, detail

Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020, detail

Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020, detail

Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020, detail

Installation view: Kunsthaus Aargau, Aarau, Switzerland, 2020

Installation view: Kunsthaus Aargau, Aarau, Switzerland, 2020

Controlled Burn, Langen Foundation, 2022
Controlled Burn, 2022
Albedo, 2025
Erratic, SFMOMA, 2022
Soothsayers, Dittrich & Schlechtriem, 2021
Concentrations 63: Towards No Earthly Pole, Dallas Museum of Art, 2021
Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020
We Are All Astronauts, 2013
Weight of Shadows – Prix Marcel Duchamp 2021, Centre Pompidou
Panchronic Garden, 2022
Chorals, 2025
Towards No Earthly Pole, Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2020
Midnight Zone, 2024
Viva Arte Viva - 57th Venice Biennale, 2017
Buried Sunshines Burn, 2023
Stone Speakers: Les Bruits de la Terre, Palais de Tokyo, 2024
Spiral Economy, 2025
Iroojrilik, 2016
Metamorphism, 2016
An Invitation to Disappear, Kunsthalle Mainz, 2018
An Invitation to Disappear, 2018
Coalface, 2024
Midnight Zone, Museum Tinguely, 2025
Ever Since We Crawled Out, 2018
First Light, Galerie Tschudi, 2017
As We Used to Float, Berlinische Galerie, 2018
Tropisme, 2014-2015
First Light, 2016
Pitch Drop, Sies + Höke, 2016
Terminal Beach, 2016
A Sky Taste of Rock, 2016
Clockwork, 2014
Objects in Mirror Might Be Closer Than They Appear, 2016
Somehow, They Never Stop Doing What They Always Did, 2013
Black Smoker, 2025
The Blue Fossil Entropic Stories, 2013
For They That Sow the Wind, Parasol Unit, 2016
The Key to the Present Lay in the Future, 2014
On The Sidewalk, 2013
Some Pigeons Are More Equal Than Others, 2012
Panorama, 2011
Polygon, 2014
The Purchase of the South Pole, 2017
Solarstalgia, ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art, 2025
Future Fossil Spaces, 2014
I Am Afraid, I Must Ask You to Leave, 2018
Somewhere, 2014
Towards No Earthly Pole, MASI Lugano, 2019
Future Fossil Spaces, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, 2014
Where Waters Meet, 2019
Towards No Earthly Pole, 2019
And Beneath It All Flows Liquid Fire, 2019
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and Everywhere, MAMBo Bologna, 2019
In the Real World It Doesn't Happen That Perfectly, 2019
Not All Who Wander Are Lost, 2019

Controlled Burn, Langen Foundation, 2022
Controlled Burn, 2022
Albedo, 2025
Erratic, SFMOMA, 2022
Soothsayers, Dittrich & Schlechtriem, 2021
Concentrations 63: Towards No Earthly Pole, Dallas Museum of Art, 2021
Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020
We Are All Astronauts, 2013
Weight of Shadows – Prix Marcel Duchamp 2021, Centre Pompidou
Panchronic Garden, 2022
Chorals, 2025
Towards No Earthly Pole, Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2020
Midnight Zone, 2024
Viva Arte Viva - 57th Venice Biennale, 2017
Buried Sunshines Burn, 2023
Stone Speakers: Les Bruits de la Terre, Palais de Tokyo, 2024
Spiral Economy, 2025
Iroojrilik, 2016
Metamorphism, 2016
An Invitation to Disappear, Kunsthalle Mainz, 2018
An Invitation to Disappear, 2018
Coalface, 2024
Midnight Zone, Museum Tinguely, 2025
Ever Since We Crawled Out, 2018
First Light, Galerie Tschudi, 2017
As We Used to Float, Berlinische Galerie, 2018
Tropisme, 2014-2015
First Light, 2016
Pitch Drop, Sies + Höke, 2016
Terminal Beach, 2016
A Sky Taste of Rock, 2016
Clockwork, 2014
Objects in Mirror Might Be Closer Than They Appear, 2016
Somehow, They Never Stop Doing What They Always Did, 2013
Black Smoker, 2025
The Blue Fossil Entropic Stories, 2013
For They That Sow the Wind, Parasol Unit, 2016
The Key to the Present Lay in the Future, 2014
On The Sidewalk, 2013
Some Pigeons Are More Equal Than Others, 2012
Panorama, 2011
Polygon, 2014
The Purchase of the South Pole, 2017
Solarstalgia, ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art, 2025
Future Fossil Spaces, 2014
I Am Afraid, I Must Ask You to Leave, 2018
Somewhere, 2014
Towards No Earthly Pole, MASI Lugano, 2019
Future Fossil Spaces, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, 2014
Where Waters Meet, 2019
Towards No Earthly Pole, 2019
And Beneath It All Flows Liquid Fire, 2019
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and Everywhere, MAMBo Bologna, 2019
In the Real World It Doesn't Happen That Perfectly, 2019
Not All Who Wander Are Lost, 2019

Controlled Burn, Langen Foundation, 2022
Controlled Burn, 2022
Albedo, 2025
Erratic, SFMOMA, 2022
Soothsayers, Dittrich & Schlechtriem, 2021
Concentrations 63: Towards No Earthly Pole, Dallas Museum of Art, 2021
Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020
We Are All Astronauts, 2013
Weight of Shadows – Prix Marcel Duchamp 2021, Centre Pompidou
Panchronic Garden, 2022
Chorals, 2025
Towards No Earthly Pole, Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2020
Midnight Zone, 2024
Viva Arte Viva - 57th Venice Biennale, 2017
Buried Sunshines Burn, 2023
Stone Speakers: Les Bruits de la Terre, Palais de Tokyo, 2024
Spiral Economy, 2025
Iroojrilik, 2016
Metamorphism, 2016
An Invitation to Disappear, Kunsthalle Mainz, 2018
An Invitation to Disappear, 2018
Coalface, 2024
Midnight Zone, Museum Tinguely, 2025
Ever Since We Crawled Out, 2018
First Light, Galerie Tschudi, 2017
As We Used to Float, Berlinische Galerie, 2018
Tropisme, 2014-2015
First Light, 2016
Pitch Drop, Sies + Höke, 2016
Terminal Beach, 2016
A Sky Taste of Rock, 2016
Clockwork, 2014
Objects in Mirror Might Be Closer Than They Appear, 2016
Somehow, They Never Stop Doing What They Always Did, 2013
Black Smoker, 2025
The Blue Fossil Entropic Stories, 2013
For They That Sow the Wind, Parasol Unit, 2016
The Key to the Present Lay in the Future, 2014
On The Sidewalk, 2013
Some Pigeons Are More Equal Than Others, 2012
Panorama, 2011
Polygon, 2014
The Purchase of the South Pole, 2017
Solarstalgia, ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art, 2025
Future Fossil Spaces, 2014
I Am Afraid, I Must Ask You to Leave, 2018
Somewhere, 2014
Towards No Earthly Pole, MASI Lugano, 2019
Future Fossil Spaces, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, 2014
Where Waters Meet, 2019
Towards No Earthly Pole, 2019
And Beneath It All Flows Liquid Fire, 2019
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and Everywhere, MAMBo Bologna, 2019
In the Real World It Doesn't Happen That Perfectly, 2019
Not All Who Wander Are Lost, 2019

Controlled Burn, Langen Foundation, 2022
Controlled Burn, 2022
Albedo, 2025
Erratic, SFMOMA, 2022
Soothsayers, Dittrich & Schlechtriem, 2021
Concentrations 63: Towards No Earthly Pole, Dallas Museum of Art, 2021
Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020
We Are All Astronauts, 2013
Weight of Shadows – Prix Marcel Duchamp 2021, Centre Pompidou
Panchronic Garden, 2022
Chorals, 2025
Towards No Earthly Pole, Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2020
Midnight Zone, 2024
Viva Arte Viva - 57th Venice Biennale, 2017
Buried Sunshines Burn, 2023
Stone Speakers: Les Bruits de la Terre, Palais de Tokyo, 2024
Spiral Economy, 2025
Iroojrilik, 2016
Metamorphism, 2016
An Invitation to Disappear, Kunsthalle Mainz, 2018
An Invitation to Disappear, 2018
Coalface, 2024
Midnight Zone, Museum Tinguely, 2025
Ever Since We Crawled Out, 2018
First Light, Galerie Tschudi, 2017
As We Used to Float, Berlinische Galerie, 2018
Tropisme, 2014-2015
First Light, 2016
Pitch Drop, Sies + Höke, 2016
Terminal Beach, 2016
A Sky Taste of Rock, 2016
Clockwork, 2014
Objects in Mirror Might Be Closer Than They Appear, 2016
Somehow, They Never Stop Doing What They Always Did, 2013
Black Smoker, 2025
The Blue Fossil Entropic Stories, 2013
For They That Sow the Wind, Parasol Unit, 2016
The Key to the Present Lay in the Future, 2014
On The Sidewalk, 2013
Some Pigeons Are More Equal Than Others, 2012
Panorama, 2011
Polygon, 2014
The Purchase of the South Pole, 2017
Solarstalgia, ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art, 2025
Future Fossil Spaces, 2014
I Am Afraid, I Must Ask You to Leave, 2018
Somewhere, 2014
Towards No Earthly Pole, MASI Lugano, 2019
Future Fossil Spaces, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, 2014
Where Waters Meet, 2019
Towards No Earthly Pole, 2019
And Beneath It All Flows Liquid Fire, 2019
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and Everywhere, MAMBo Bologna, 2019
In the Real World It Doesn't Happen That Perfectly, 2019
Not All Who Wander Are Lost, 2019

Controlled Burn, Langen Foundation, 2022
Controlled Burn, 2022
Albedo, 2025
Erratic, SFMOMA, 2022
Soothsayers, Dittrich & Schlechtriem, 2021
Concentrations 63: Towards No Earthly Pole, Dallas Museum of Art, 2021
Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020
We Are All Astronauts, 2013
Weight of Shadows – Prix Marcel Duchamp 2021, Centre Pompidou
Panchronic Garden, 2022
Chorals, 2025
Towards No Earthly Pole, Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2020
Midnight Zone, 2024
Viva Arte Viva - 57th Venice Biennale, 2017
Buried Sunshines Burn, 2023
Stone Speakers: Les Bruits de la Terre, Palais de Tokyo, 2024
Spiral Economy, 2025
Iroojrilik, 2016
Metamorphism, 2016
An Invitation to Disappear, Kunsthalle Mainz, 2018
An Invitation to Disappear, 2018
Coalface, 2024
Midnight Zone, Museum Tinguely, 2025
Ever Since We Crawled Out, 2018
First Light, Galerie Tschudi, 2017
As We Used to Float, Berlinische Galerie, 2018
Tropisme, 2014-2015
First Light, 2016
Pitch Drop, Sies + Höke, 2016
Terminal Beach, 2016
A Sky Taste of Rock, 2016
Clockwork, 2014
Objects in Mirror Might Be Closer Than They Appear, 2016
Somehow, They Never Stop Doing What They Always Did, 2013
Black Smoker, 2025
The Blue Fossil Entropic Stories, 2013
For They That Sow the Wind, Parasol Unit, 2016
The Key to the Present Lay in the Future, 2014
On The Sidewalk, 2013
Some Pigeons Are More Equal Than Others, 2012
Panorama, 2011
Polygon, 2014
The Purchase of the South Pole, 2017
Solarstalgia, ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art, 2025
Future Fossil Spaces, 2014
I Am Afraid, I Must Ask You to Leave, 2018
Somewhere, 2014
Towards No Earthly Pole, MASI Lugano, 2019
Future Fossil Spaces, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, 2014
Where Waters Meet, 2019
Towards No Earthly Pole, 2019
And Beneath It All Flows Liquid Fire, 2019
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and Everywhere, MAMBo Bologna, 2019
In the Real World It Doesn't Happen That Perfectly, 2019
Not All Who Wander Are Lost, 2019

Controlled Burn, Langen Foundation, 2022
Controlled Burn, 2022
Albedo, 2025
Erratic, SFMOMA, 2022
Soothsayers, Dittrich & Schlechtriem, 2021
Concentrations 63: Towards No Earthly Pole, Dallas Museum of Art, 2021
Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020
We Are All Astronauts, 2013
Weight of Shadows – Prix Marcel Duchamp 2021, Centre Pompidou
Panchronic Garden, 2022
Chorals, 2025
Towards No Earthly Pole, Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2020
Midnight Zone, 2024
Viva Arte Viva - 57th Venice Biennale, 2017
Buried Sunshines Burn, 2023
Stone Speakers: Les Bruits de la Terre, Palais de Tokyo, 2024
Spiral Economy, 2025
Iroojrilik, 2016
Metamorphism, 2016
An Invitation to Disappear, Kunsthalle Mainz, 2018
An Invitation to Disappear, 2018
Coalface, 2024
Midnight Zone, Museum Tinguely, 2025
Ever Since We Crawled Out, 2018
First Light, Galerie Tschudi, 2017
As We Used to Float, Berlinische Galerie, 2018
Tropisme, 2014-2015
First Light, 2016
Pitch Drop, Sies + Höke, 2016
Terminal Beach, 2016
A Sky Taste of Rock, 2016
Clockwork, 2014
Objects in Mirror Might Be Closer Than They Appear, 2016
Somehow, They Never Stop Doing What They Always Did, 2013
Black Smoker, 2025
The Blue Fossil Entropic Stories, 2013
For They That Sow the Wind, Parasol Unit, 2016
The Key to the Present Lay in the Future, 2014
On The Sidewalk, 2013
Some Pigeons Are More Equal Than Others, 2012
Panorama, 2011
Polygon, 2014
The Purchase of the South Pole, 2017
Solarstalgia, ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art, 2025
Future Fossil Spaces, 2014
I Am Afraid, I Must Ask You to Leave, 2018
Somewhere, 2014
Towards No Earthly Pole, MASI Lugano, 2019
Future Fossil Spaces, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, 2014
Where Waters Meet, 2019
Towards No Earthly Pole, 2019
And Beneath It All Flows Liquid Fire, 2019
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and Everywhere, MAMBo Bologna, 2019
In the Real World It Doesn't Happen That Perfectly, 2019
Not All Who Wander Are Lost, 2019

Controlled Burn, Langen Foundation, 2022
Controlled Burn, 2022
Albedo, 2025
Erratic, SFMOMA, 2022
Soothsayers, Dittrich & Schlechtriem, 2021
Concentrations 63: Towards No Earthly Pole, Dallas Museum of Art, 2021
Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020
We Are All Astronauts, 2013
Weight of Shadows – Prix Marcel Duchamp 2021, Centre Pompidou
Panchronic Garden, 2022
Chorals, 2025
Towards No Earthly Pole, Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2020
Midnight Zone, 2024
Viva Arte Viva - 57th Venice Biennale, 2017
Buried Sunshines Burn, 2023
Stone Speakers: Les Bruits de la Terre, Palais de Tokyo, 2024
Spiral Economy, 2025
Iroojrilik, 2016
Metamorphism, 2016
An Invitation to Disappear, Kunsthalle Mainz, 2018
An Invitation to Disappear, 2018
Coalface, 2024
Midnight Zone, Museum Tinguely, 2025
Ever Since We Crawled Out, 2018
First Light, Galerie Tschudi, 2017
As We Used to Float, Berlinische Galerie, 2018
Tropisme, 2014-2015
First Light, 2016
Pitch Drop, Sies + Höke, 2016
Terminal Beach, 2016
A Sky Taste of Rock, 2016
Clockwork, 2014
Objects in Mirror Might Be Closer Than They Appear, 2016
Somehow, They Never Stop Doing What They Always Did, 2013
Black Smoker, 2025
The Blue Fossil Entropic Stories, 2013
For They That Sow the Wind, Parasol Unit, 2016
The Key to the Present Lay in the Future, 2014
On The Sidewalk, 2013
Some Pigeons Are More Equal Than Others, 2012
Panorama, 2011
Polygon, 2014
The Purchase of the South Pole, 2017
Solarstalgia, ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art, 2025
Future Fossil Spaces, 2014
I Am Afraid, I Must Ask You to Leave, 2018
Somewhere, 2014
Towards No Earthly Pole, MASI Lugano, 2019
Future Fossil Spaces, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, 2014
Where Waters Meet, 2019
Towards No Earthly Pole, 2019
And Beneath It All Flows Liquid Fire, 2019
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and Everywhere, MAMBo Bologna, 2019
In the Real World It Doesn't Happen That Perfectly, 2019
Not All Who Wander Are Lost, 2019

Controlled Burn, Langen Foundation, 2022
Controlled Burn, 2022
Albedo, 2025
Erratic, SFMOMA, 2022
Soothsayers, Dittrich & Schlechtriem, 2021
Concentrations 63: Towards No Earthly Pole, Dallas Museum of Art, 2021
Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020
We Are All Astronauts, 2013
Weight of Shadows – Prix Marcel Duchamp 2021, Centre Pompidou
Panchronic Garden, 2022
Chorals, 2025
Towards No Earthly Pole, Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2020
Midnight Zone, 2024
Viva Arte Viva - 57th Venice Biennale, 2017
Buried Sunshines Burn, 2023
Stone Speakers: Les Bruits de la Terre, Palais de Tokyo, 2024
Spiral Economy, 2025
Iroojrilik, 2016
Metamorphism, 2016
An Invitation to Disappear, Kunsthalle Mainz, 2018
An Invitation to Disappear, 2018
Coalface, 2024
Midnight Zone, Museum Tinguely, 2025
Ever Since We Crawled Out, 2018
First Light, Galerie Tschudi, 2017
As We Used to Float, Berlinische Galerie, 2018
Tropisme, 2014-2015
First Light, 2016
Pitch Drop, Sies + Höke, 2016
Terminal Beach, 2016
A Sky Taste of Rock, 2016
Clockwork, 2014
Objects in Mirror Might Be Closer Than They Appear, 2016
Somehow, They Never Stop Doing What They Always Did, 2013
Black Smoker, 2025
The Blue Fossil Entropic Stories, 2013
For They That Sow the Wind, Parasol Unit, 2016
The Key to the Present Lay in the Future, 2014
On The Sidewalk, 2013
Some Pigeons Are More Equal Than Others, 2012
Panorama, 2011
Polygon, 2014
The Purchase of the South Pole, 2017
Solarstalgia, ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art, 2025
Future Fossil Spaces, 2014
I Am Afraid, I Must Ask You to Leave, 2018
Somewhere, 2014
Towards No Earthly Pole, MASI Lugano, 2019
Future Fossil Spaces, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, 2014
Where Waters Meet, 2019
Towards No Earthly Pole, 2019
And Beneath It All Flows Liquid Fire, 2019
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and Everywhere, MAMBo Bologna, 2019
In the Real World It Doesn't Happen That Perfectly, 2019
Not All Who Wander Are Lost, 2019