Earthbound

Earthbound (2025) is a visually arresting, multi-screen cinematic installation set in a desolate future world following a catastrophic Ice Age. Across four to five expansive screens, it tells the story of a lone survivor; a woman who awakens from the ice. Set against glacial wastelands and frozen relics of extinct life, she embarks on a deeply symbolic journey to preserve and rejuvenate the last fragile remnants of nature.

The film explores powerful themes of survival, resilience, and humanity’s profound connection to nature in a time of climate crisis and mass extinction. As the ice melts, it reveals long-buried remnants including ancient bodies, extinct animals, and human-made debris which confronts us with echoes of the past that resurface from the melting permafrost. Earthbound speculates beyond the present crisis, speculating a distant future at the end of a new Ice Age, where traces of both organic and synthetic materials remain embedded in the frozen world. The film’s journey is one of adaptation, care, and the search for renewal in an environment shaped by the legacies of both nature and human intervention.

Earthbound is a progression of Langan’s artistic practice. Whether exploring the human figure or elemental landscapes, her work has long been guided by a concern for the fragile nature of our planet and humanity’s transient relationship with it. This film forges a new, expanded cinematic language that blends conceptual performance, sensory imagery, and an immersive audiovisual experience. Earthbound is a striking exploration that redefines the possibilities of moving image art.

Accompanied by a series of large-scale photographs, the project moves beyond the screen into a physical meditation on time, memory, and environmental preservation. Earthbound combines abstract and intimate imagery of ice fossils and the body along with expansive frozen landscapes, creating a powerful visceral cinematic experience. Filmed by Clare Langan and renowned cinematographer Robbie Ryan, with an evocative score by Icelandic composer Gyða Valtýsdóttir, it is a poetic reflection on extinction, adaptation, and the resilience of life in a world forever altered. The project is edited by renowned editor Adam Finch, who has edited all of Isaac Julien’s multiscreen video installations.