Herculaneum

Idols we chase. 

We go numb.

To outlive ourselves. 

“I am leaving something behind?”

“Well…I hope so”

Herculaneum is a project about the stories that fade as we run toward tomorrow – a series of modern fossils. Too fragile to be held; they are captivating but unreadable. 

They ask, “In our eagerness for efficiency, are we considering the carnage?”

Or, like the scrolls of parchment preserved under layers of volcanic ash in Herculaneum, will we discover a new technology to remember ourselves?

The fossilized books in this series began with hotel Bibles placed by the Gideons – an evangelical Christian organization, in hotel rooms across America. I found the handy index of passages to soothe feelings of despair and suicidal ideation to be fascinating. I stuffed the pages with fabric, lace, dried plants, hair, & found objects- infusing them with small traces of life. 

We’ve been telling the same stories since the beginning. Ideas abstract into something less concerned with true understanding. We use information as a status symbol in an overstimulated world. We obsess over how to outlive ourselves.  

Held in inescapable webs, I fabricate artifacts. As we separate from the traditions that have held us, we lose sight of what it is to be a part of a collective something. Our collective story. 

 In this new digital dark age, we must admit the harrowing speed of our growth. What do we stand to lose as we sprint toward some new idol? Will we remember ourselves?