Earlier this year, Latitudes was commissioned to write a text on the work of the America-born Scotland-based artist, researcher, writer and educator Crystal Bennes for the latest edition of the Freelands Artist Programme. This month’s Cover Story is just a glimpse into her expansive work-in-progress around the financialisation of natural resources in anticipation of “Betwixt 2024”, the forthcoming Freelands’ publication out next year coinciding with the presentation of Crystal’s project, alongside 19 other artists from the programme, and an upcoming solo show of the new project at Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh.

Involving tapestry, sculptural installation, video, and performance, Crystal’s project addresses the rapaciousness and sophistry of commodities trading. This arena deploys abstract financial instruments to bet on the future value of raw materials and natural resources including crude oil, metals, coffee, and – as featured here in a design study for a Jacquard weaving titled pecunia non olete (2023) – cotton. The Freelands Artist Programme supports and grows regional arts ecosystems in the UK by fostering long-term relationships and collaborations between emerging artists and arts organisations. Between 2022–24, Freelands is working with three organisations in addition to the Talbot Rice – g39 in Cardiff, PS2 in Belfast, and Site Gallery in Sheffield.

Crystal’s recent work has included an ongoing photographic exploration of an artificial island in Sweden created entirely out of radioactive waste from industrially-produced synthetic fertiliser and the experimental recreation of a nineteenth-century hay meadow based on a myth of unintentional plant migration from Italy to Denmark. The latter project opens at the Thorvaldsens Museum in Copenhagen on 16 June!