The Traces of Humanity
2023
Installation
5 types of rocks from periods of 5 extinctions, mirror
+ smaller version of the installation
(of one cubic centimetre object for sending to a new NASA station on the Moon )
From left to right: the massive Ordovician extinction, the Late Devonian extinction, the Permian mass extinction, the Late Triassic extinction, and the Late Cretaceous extinction.
"There are no traces of cataclysm in stone.
They are in you and me.
The world will turn into a dream today.
Try to remember it.
Someone will wake up again in millions of years,
To light the fire."
Anna Kakhiani
"...when life achieved self-awareness through the human mind, it condemned its most beautiful creations to death."
Edward Osborne Wilson
As early as the beginning of our era, Pliny said in “The Natural History” that stones preserve traces of catastrophes that caused the extinction of species. When we say that we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction of species, do we recognize ourselves as the cause? What will be the traces left by humanity for thousands of years to come?
The Anthropocene is believed to have begun with the Industrial Revolution, the introduction of modern technology - turbines, railroads, chainsaws, and weapons - that made humanity a planet-changing force.
We are facing a large-scale ecological catastrophe and keep talking about awareness in all spheres of life and about salvation scenarios for humanity, such as space exploration and life on other planets, satellites, and asteroids. But what will we take with us into the future, what will we take with us into space?
We still haven't learned to exist with responsibility for every choice here and now, even for every personal decision, whether it's a direct environmental issue or a political position. Because even the smallest choices have an impact on the dynamics of all life on planet Earth.
