Soil Survivor

Today, people all over the world are united in protest––and not just because of the 4.5km-high, flight-disrupting ash cloud that’s been hovering over Europe for the past week. Rather, 2010 marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, an annual rally for environmental awareness that began when Senator Gaylord Nelson held the first appeal in 1970. Twenty million people gathered the first time round, with that figure doubled by the event’s 20th birthday in 1990. Today Earth Day is a global phenomenon, celebrated in 175 countries by hundreds of millions of ecologically conscious civilians. It is a time to remember that our planet is generally very good to us, supporting, at last count, over 6.98bn people, despite what we manage to throw at it. In return, we owe it some respect. NOWNESS asked Neville Wakefield—Creative Consultant for Calvin Klein Men's and Greater New York (MoMa PS1) and former curator of projects at the Frieze Art Fair, as well as the creative director for Adam Kimmel Projects and a frequent contributor to W, ACNE Paper, Artforum and more—to put together an artistic paean to the planet in his own inimitable style. His latest curatorial project, Matthew Barney's upcoming exhibition Prayer Sheet with the Wound and the Nail, opens at Schaulager, Switzerland on June 12.