This installation and its process is an exploration of formal and temporal qualities in ammonite fossils from the Cambrian era mass extinction that have left behind traces and specimens in stone as evidence of their life cycles.
Fossils provide an opportunity to reflect upon how we perceive and contextualize time on a personal and planetary scale. The patterns we discover in these ancient forms indicate a cycle of life halted—individual, unique, transformed through time from an organic body into stone. The fossil is an artifact of time transformed—a shadow, an imprint, a pattern of time.
Diagenesis
2017–2018
Muslin, salt, rust, acrylic
38” x 38” x 6”
Thaer Inst. of Horticulture, Humboldt U. Berlin, Germany
We can hold a fossil in our hands and feel the weight of centuries.
Ammonite Fossils in Museum fur Naturkunde
Ammonite Fossils in Museum fur Naturkunde
My work is characterized by methodologies of research and process that result in explorations of process through concept…and concept through making.
First, I studied the building. Then I built coils from paper and used rust to age and create form. The sculptures aged on the floor of the Museum Atrium for two weeks. I then removed the process materials and displayed the sculptures on the floor for another two weeks.
Stone’s Throw, 2019, Muslin, Steel Wool, Salt