“Where does an organism begin and end? The more we learn, the more the boundaries of individuals seem to dissolve.”— Merlin Sheldrake
DIMIN and Brigitte Mulholland are thrilled to collaborate on Emily Orta’s first solo exhibition in New York, Whims of Panspermia. The show explores the dissolution of boundaries. Through the medium of clay, Orta investigates the moment where form ceases to be an object and becomes a presence. The work follows the slow transformation inherent to the material: from a cold, wet, and mineral state—not unlike the moist fungal networks described by Merlin Sheldrake—to a gradual drying and hardening. Panspermia is conceived here as a cosmic deposit, while the Whim represents the unpredictable "drift" of the clay as it settles, repeats, and varies.
It is an inquiry into what it means to grow, to harden, and to remain "entangled" in a world that never truly concludes. What persists is not identity, but tendency: a soft inclination of matter to gather, to repeat, to vary. A kind of whimsical panspermia, where forms are neither fully rooted nor entirely transient, but held in a state of gentle dispersion.
Comprised of new sculptures of varying sizes, they all share similar forms, but are never the same. Suggesting bodies, but not quite; creatures, though never fully defined. It is unclear whether they are many, or one thing - multiplication in variations. Without faces, they remain as presences. Quiet, self-contained; they appear as presence, not substance. There is whimsy in their variation, yet they remain grounded, like a condition of space itself.
They are each given a name - yet remain in a dispersed system where origin is replaced by a continuation beyond what is visible. Beneath them, or between them, something persists. A tendency to connect, to touch, to remain in proximity without merging completely. Together, they hold in place, like a small army at the ready. A quiet accumulation of presences, suspended between arrival and rest: nothing resolves, nothing concludes. The forms remain, as if waiting were part of their structure. A gathering without origin, and a dispersion without end.
Emily Orta (b. 1999, Paris, France) is a Franco-British-Argentinian sculptor working primarily in ceramics. Her work explores the fragility of living organisms and systems, viewing form not as a fixed entity but as a pause within a wider, continuous movement. She deliberately blurs the boundaries between the animate and the inanimate, the real and the unreal, inviting viewers to question the complexities of existence. Her intuitive approach to sculpting clay seeks to capture the complex transformation of life and the promise of unknown possibilities. In doing so, she encourages viewers to explore their own relationship with the natural world and to contemplate the evolving and mysterious tapestry of existence. Orta has developed a unique personal language rooted in the creative process. She pushes the technical limits of ceramic practice through the creation of her own glazes and a rigorous, somewhat unconventional firing process, situated between tradition and experimentation. Her ceramics stand as eloquent expressions of the beauty found in ambiguity.
Emily Orta: Whims of Panspermia will take place in DIMIN's Living Room concurrently to Stephen Thorpe: Half in Love with Oblivion in the main gallery.
Brigitte Mulholland is a contemporary art gallery in Paris, France.