The Story of Fixity

I often wonder if our relationship to nature can only operate through the senses that we possess, particularly our visual perception. This questioning, and my research in hydrology and hydrogeology have led me to create The Story of Fixity.  This project presents a desynchronised version of the water cycles I was exploring, where all the particles that water transports, from one land to another, are made visible through the use of hyper-colour.

 - Noemie Goudal

The Story of Fixity is an ambitious new installation where an immersive three-channel film permeates into the space in which it is presented. 

The element of water sits at the heart of this project and for the first time takes centre stage in the artist’s meticulous research. 

Colourless, odourless and flavourless, this ubiquitous substance has many forms and functions. Goudal reflects on its paradoxical role in shaping our terrestrial landscapes; as a key transporter of minerals from one land to another, that form and nourish ecosystems; and as an essential element with the power to sustain and destroy life on earth. 

Across three screens, Goudal pairs the cycles of water with the rhythms of day and night, bringing together universally understood rhythms with new scientific research. 

Colour is a key component in Goudal’s latest exploration.  The mesmerising triptych loops from a desaturated palette to vibrant hues and back again. Layers wash away to reveal new images, the visible flow evokes rivers and streams that flow through our planetary ecosystems, making and remaking landscapes. 

Within the space, droplets descend from the ceiling and leak from the screen, slowly forming coloured pools at the feet of the audience. 

Questioning our understanding of the natural world is a recurring theme in Goudal’s practice, and while the artist consistently puts nature in the frame, her intention is to make us aware that our perception and imagination of nature has been influenced by many forces. 

Goudal’s most ambitious installation to date incorporates painting, photography and moving image, drawing together myriad protagonists and mediums that have collectively shaped the story of nature across centuries. 

The title itself is an ironic nod to an impossible human endeavour - the attempt to fix a narrative around our changing and dynamically evolving environment. 

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Image: Still from The Story of Fixity (2025) by Noémie Goudal. 

On 9 December 2025, Noémie Goudal was joined in conversation by Sarah Dry, writer and historian of science. In a conversation chaired by Artangel Director, Mariam Zulfiqar, the pair discussed Goudal’s major new commission for Artangel, The Story of Fixity, and their mutual interest in the history of science, particularly water, which are the focus for both this ambitious new installation and Dry's research. A recording of the conversation will be made available soon.

The three films at the heart of The Story of Fixity show a photographic backdrop in constant flux. The landscape goes from night to day, questioning the unshakable 'world order’ created by sunrise and sunset.  To this, I added another step, transforming the land into its ‘hypercoloured' self.

The world is often perceived as a fixed entity with our borders and determined territories. What I have wanted to highlight through my installation is how we can re-integrate into our fixed or certain ‘world order’ - it’s movements and circulations,  with its systems of interconnection such as the water cycles.

Noémie Goudal is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, based in Paris, France. Her work was recently featured in the Sharjah Biennial 2025 (UAE) and at the Pompidou Centre for the Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2024.

Her work is grounded in rigorous research at the intersection of ecology and anthropology, questioning our theoretical understandings of the natural world. Goudal is particularly interested in the human perception of time and the intrinsic connections between humanity and nature, including the transformations that landscapes undergo over time.

Noémie Goudal is represented by Edel Assanti Gallery in London.

"Noémie Goudal visualises timescales beyond human perception. Her illusionistic installations, composed of cutouts, photography and simple sleights of hand, articulate the movement of tectonic plates and great spans of planetary evolution. “The science is the grounding and my inspiration. Then you have how it’s made and the optical illusions I’m trying to create."  - Jennifer Lucy Allan, 8 November 2025, Financial Times

"Naturalism is not a preoccupation in Goudal’s art. She gives us an illusion and then she takes it away again, transforms it and turns it into something else... Goudal’s mix of photography and film, the real and the illusory, reveals its technical complexities even as it dissolves and deconstructs itself, over and over again in 15-minute cycles." - Adrian Searle, 18 November 2025, The Guardian

The Story of Fixity by Noémie Goudal is commissioned and produced by Artangel. 

This commission is supported by Artangel’s Guardian Angels, and the Noémie Goudal Exhibition Circle. 

Supported by Cockayne Grants for the Arts, a Donor Advised Fund, held at The Prism Charitable Trust. 

Supported by Fluxus Art Projects. 

With thanks to Deutsche Bank. 

Artangel is generously supported using public funding by Arts Council England and by the private patronage of the Artangel International Circle, Special Angels, The Guardian Angels and The Company of Angels.