To celebrate the creation of Great Jones Distillery—the only whiskey distillery in Manhattan, Sébastien Léon was invited to conceive an experiential installation titled Alchemy. Derived from the Ancient Egyptian word keme, meaning “black earth,” the title references the mystical practice of transmuting base matter into gold, both literally and philosophically.

Drawing on the unique geological conditions of Upstate New York’s dark, ice-age soil, Léon transforms sediment into monumental, richly textured murals. These are punctuated by two mirrored prisms that infinitely refract ice-like blown-glass sculptures. Extending the metaphor of transformation, Léon interprets corn distillation as a field of organ-like copper pipes, which emit an abstracted sonic journey, from the Big Bang to the present day, composed in collaboration with sound designer Stephen Dewey.