7 February – 21 March 2026

The worm, 11 Castle Gate, Aberdeen

A new limited-edition publication and Living Table event will be supported by Outer Spaces.

Crystal salt, St Andrews Botanical Garden, 2025. Courtesy of the artist

A solo exhibition presented at Peacock & Worm, Aberdeen from 7 February – 21 March 2026.

Salt is something most of us encounter every day - on our food, in the sea, or sprinkled on icy streets. But this humble mineral, known as NaCl or halite - when extracted from mines - carries a rich, complex history. From its role in colonial trade to its symbolic power as a preservative and commodity, salt has shaped histories, landscapes, and livelihoods across the globe.

As part of a year of research at Gray's School of Art as the Freeland Studio Fellow 2025 - 2026, Désirée Coral has investigated the body as a pedagogical media, artistic material, and a connector to landscape. Collecting seawater in St. Andrews and allowing it to evaporate in the greenhouses of St. Andrews Botanic Gardens, the artist has harvested the salt after several weeks and bringing it finally to Aberdeen. In doing so, she replicates the pre-industrial models of production and distribution of salt in Scotland.

Essays on Salt - The First Harvest explores salt through a decolonial lens, beginning with Aberdeen’s shipbuilding industry, maritime and trade routes, and, most importantly, the long-lasting fishing industry that once connected Aberdeen to global colonial economies. The exhibition reflects on the potential power of communities, individuals, and relations to body and labour and its power structures. Salt is used here not only as a substance but also as a metaphor for knowledge and relationships, from its harvesting process, through its materiality, to its connection to the body, nature and labour, and collaborative systems embedded in its materiality.

Désirée Coral is an artist based in Scotland, she received her Doctoral degree from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee in Scotland in 2024, and her MFA degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2018.

Coral's artistic exploration and research delve into the realm of early global exchanges, spanning from the Americas to the rest of the world and vice versa. She employs a decolonial lens to examine the relationships between humans, interspecies, and the environment, as well as the relationships and hierarchies evident in our food, foodscapes, and foodways systems.

For opening hours and access information please refer to the Peacock & Worm website. 

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