Our human lives are intertwined with all forms of matter, and these encounters dictate natural processes that are currently controlled by human behavior. In this reality, our bodies seem to float rather than have a solid rooting connection to our surroundings.
As we unravel the origins of our present through fossils, our current actions will eventually become part of the past narrative.
The destructive interactions we experience now will leave behind future fossils, shaping the narrative that is yet to be told.
This work, Future Fossils, is a performative; interactive exploration with the passing of time in its natural life force. Using single-threaded strings made of wool and hand-shaped sculptures crafted from locally sourced clay, this installation represents a collaboration between different eras - the shaping of the past and the evolution towards the future. As the wool slowly unravels, the sculptures will fall to the ground, inviting to participate by holding onto a sculpture and halting its descent. This bodily action questions our place as humans in relation to natural forces.
The installation contains out of a few phases in which the performative act changes. During the exhibition, the performance begins by hanging up the clay sculptures with the self-spun wool on the structure of the installation. Once all of the sculptures are hanging, they are finding themself in a fragile but balanced state. The natural surroundings will influence their state as the gravity, wind and rain effects the unravelling of the strings. At this phase I have performed an act in which one sculpture is held, thereby releasing the gravity that was on the sculpture and stopping the passage of unravelling time. As long as the sculpture is held, the natural force is stopped by human behavior. After this individual performance, the public were invited to perform the same bodily action. While the natural force of unravelling performs, the human bodily action able of halting time questionings our relationship towards this force.
Once all sculptures have fallen to the ground the performance starts over again.