The Fossil Era

"The Fossil Era" examines the current "Present Tense" as a volatile interlude within the vast chronology of the Earth system. By framing the series between the primordial blueprint of the fern and the precarious presence of the northern gannet, the work positions the industrial age not as a permanent state, but as a disruptive transitional phase.

The sevenfold structure of the series follows a narrative arc that pivots around a central industrial monument, reflecting the immense gravity of our carbon-dependent present within the wider cycles of the Earth system.

The fern represents the ancient biological origin of the very carbon that fuels our modern world, while the gannets—acting as sentinels of the Anthropocene—embody the fragile biosphere currently straining under industrial exhalations. Between these biological anchors, the monolithic machinery of coal extraction stands as a rigid, skeletal inheritance. These structures represent the "fossilised" grip of a production era that we struggle to overcome, even as its environmental consequences become a geological reality.

Through this lens, the heavy machinery is reimagined as a temporary, iron-clad intrusion upon the deeper rhythms of the planet. The series documents our collective struggle to transcend this carbon-tethered existence, capturing the inherent tension of a society caught between the immense momentum of its industrial past and the urgent necessity of a biological future.