When extraterrestrial bodies such as asteroids, comets and planets shed debris into space, they are often pulled into the atmosphere by the Earth's forces of gravity. Shaped by atmospheric entry, the remnants eventually settle on the surface of Earth as microscopic dust. As this dust mixes with the native elements of our planet—forests, cities and buildings, it becomes an indistinguishable part of these places.

“Each type of dust carries its own narrative. Some are shaped by human activity—smoke, soot, glass fibres—while others are born in stars and carried across time and space,” artist Sonia Leimer told STIR. Leimer, who first got acquainted with cosmic particles in 2018 and has been researching them ever since, crafts sculptures she calls Dust Buddies for her exhibition Cosmic Dust in the United Kingdom, presented by the Jencks Foundation. The Jencks Foundation was established by Lily Jencks, Charles Jencks' daughter in 2021 as a laboratory of Postmodern culture. On view till September 12, 2025, at The Cosmic House in London, the exhibition is an exploration of the journey of cosmic dust, including samples from the house's rooftop.

Under the guidance of Vienna’s Natural History Museum, Leimer studies dust samples through a microscopic lens, inspiring a series of sculptural designs. Crafted from bronze, aluminium and glass, the pieces do not replicate forms seen under the microscope; they act as unfamiliar, foreign objects made from familiar materials. The exhibition takes over the house's Architectural Library, where bookshelves assume the roles of buildings and unoccupied spaces become public squares inhabited by the Dust Buddies.

“It is a poetic staging ground for the relationship between matter and meaning. Though inspired by microscopic realities, the sculptures evoke a sense of scale-shifting from atom to city, from universe to self,” Leimer said about her work. Her words suggest a convergence of spatiality, science and spirituality. “In my practice, I don’t draw strict boundaries between disciplines. I am interested in that moment when a work becomes both poetic and abstract, when it opens space for reflection rather than offering fixed meaning,” she said.

Born in Italy, Leimer is based in Vienna, Austria, where she graduated in architecture and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. Known for large-scale installations, she plays with scale and perception in her work at The Cosmic House. “What fascinates me is how these tiny, often overlooked particles can tell us so much about time, decay, transformation and our place in the universe,” she said. 

Presented alongside the exhibits is a film that captures the sculpture artist’s fascination with the mysteries of space dust, taking visitors through the entire process, from the collection of dust in petri dishes to laboratory studies.

Cosmic Dust is the first of many planned exhibitions under the foundation’s Post-Modern Cosmology series—developed to explore the meaning of the universe through an intersection of religion, ecology, art and science. “Postmodern cosmology embraces the idea that there is no single, absolute narrative of the universe. Instead, it allows for many different—often contradictory—perspectives, understanding the cosmos not just as a physical phenomenon, but as spacetime shaped by cultural, historical, and ecological contexts, including imagination and fiction,” Leimer told STIR.

In a conversation with Leimer for the foundation’s website, its director, Esztler Steierhoffer, frames the project as a “way to create a portrait” of The Cosmic House and the city in which it is situated. Elaborating on this, Leimer said, “Dust is shaped by context, culture and climate. London’s dust, for example, contains many traces of glass fibres and grains of Saharan sand carried by wind. It also holds components from local industries, construction sites, buildings, local flora and fauna.” In mobilising dust from the city and the exhibition venue, Leimer presents its history and identity as a complex archive of events terrestrial and beyond.

While studying a boundless universe with a microscope might seem paradoxical, as Steierhoffer observes in her interview with Leimer, one could argue that the answers to an incomprehensibly vast universe lie in more comprehensible forms, such as specks of dust. Cosmic Dust encourages viewers to begin perceiving everyday encounters with more meaning, suggesting that even seemingly oppositional areas of thought, like science and spirituality, might merely exist as two sides of the same coin.

'Cosmic Dust' is on view at the The Cosmic House in London until 12 September 2025.