Purified Vessel (a tree), 2024
pool overflow drain, usnea lichen, humidifier, steam
L200 x W80 x H80 cm, without chain
at Galleri Snerk, Tromsø (NO)
The work imagines a post-human world where manmade objects become hosts for new life.
It reflects on our denial of extinction and our struggle to face the future consciously.
Usnea lichen grows only in areas of low air pollution and latches onto trees as hanging tassels.
In the world after the human species is gone, manmade objects will naturally shape their new function based on the organisms inhabiting them. Metal and plastic might become the new trees.
“The brain does not accept that death is related to us, we have this primal mechanism that means when the brain gets information that links self to death, something tells us it’s not reliable, so we shouldn’t believe it.”
— Yair Dor-Ziderman interview on prediction-based neural mechanisms for shielding the self from existential threat.
I wonder if the denial also extends to the extinction of the whole species. Could overcoming this “hardware issue” help us foresee what’s coming and prevent it? Would we calmly accept our fate?
