Fossil Necklace (2013)

Katie Paterson

​

Katie Paterson is an artist who often works in collaboration with scientists. Her works explore time and the evolution of nature and the cosmos by way of moonlight, melting glaciers, and dead stars.

 

              ‘Fossil Necklace is a string of worlds, with each bead modestly representing a major event in the evolution of life through a vast expanse of geological time. From the mono-cellular origins of life on earth to the shifting of the continents, the extinction of the Cretaceous period triggered by a falling meteorite, to the first flowering of flowers, it charts the development of our species and affirms our intimate connection to the evolution of those alongside us. Each fossil has been individually selected from all corners of the globe, and then carved into spherical beads in a secondary process of excavation.’

 

Guy Haywood, Kettle’s Yard.

 

 

I’ve found that the idea of a string of the world's metamorphosis is fascinating. When fossils were carved into tiny beads and presented in the form of necklace brings a sense of value and fragility, asking us to care and to pay a closer attention to the world we live in. The timeline diagram draws me in to browse through the emergence of each important event of the world evolution, beginning from the Precambrian to the Holocene. I imagine if her fossil necklace would be extended longer in the future. What footprint of objects of the Anthropocene could be found in those future-fossil beads? Would it be of plastic carrier bag, aluminum can and other artificial materials? The fossils we are making now will be a puzzle for civilizations of the far future.