Four Billion Years and COunting

Four Billion Years and Counting

Borrowing its title from a Canadian geology textbook (1), Four Billion Years and Counting considers the affinities of beings with unique histories and experiences. The installation comprises a constellation of found and made matter from various time periods—rocks and minerals of geologic age (from the Hadeon Eon onward) alongside ceramic sculptures and handmade interventions created by the artist in present times.

This artwork is "living". New handbuilt forms and gathered beings continue to be added to its universe and every time the artwork is exhibited, it will vary in configuration and makeup, and it will be older—four billion years old and counting. It is not yet complete.

Emerging from proximity and similitude among constituent beings, billions of years of embedded narratives are compressed into a communion of simultaneous existence, representing a vast expanse of time and hope for a yet-to-be-written future.

[1 Fensome, R. A., Williams, G. L. (Graham L. ), Achab, A., Clague, J. J., Corrigan, D., Monger, J. W. H., & Nowlan, G. S. (Eds.). (2014). Four billion years and counting : Canada’s geological heritage. Nimbus Publishing.]

Project Details

2024 - ongoing

Sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks, clay, pyrite, labradorite, gold, silver, cobalt, lithium, quartz, sand, fossilized wood, fossilized ammonite, crinoid stars, glass, voile, cotton gauze, blanket, antique magnifying glass, urushi, wood.

Dimensions variable, depending on where and how it's sited.