Unnatural History

The works in Unnatural History are portals backwards or forwards (or sometimes both at once) in geologic time, offering visions from before, after, and during the tenancy of humankind. Dioramas of cast resin depicting bizarre plants and animate slime suggest a post-human period wherein nature reclaims the planet. Artificial geodes made of oil paint, latex, foam, and soil transport viewers into a distant future where industrial waste has become fossil evidence of human activity. Abstract wall sculptures use motor and crude oil as raw material in the depiction of the vast, intricate industrial landscapes of the near future, while wooden mosaics made of materials salvaged from hurricane-affected cities and reconstructed glass objects found on beaches suggest a possible utopian remedy to decline, decay, and disintegration. Overall, the exhibition underscores and illustrates the many ways in which the technological processes of mass mining, manufacturing, resource extraction, and large-scale industrial agriculture have altered not only the present, but also the future history of our planet.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website