Dark Matter: Future Fossils (proposal)

DARK MATTER: FUTURE FOSSILS Bitumen is a preservative, one of the oldest materials used in building and a subject of scientific interest. Bitumen has been bubbling out of the ground in Southern California, Southern Iraq and other sites around the world for thousands of years. From the Ice Age to the present, bitumen has perfectly preserved things entrapped in it. Extinct plants and animals from 40,000 years ago have been discovered, preserved on site at Rancho La Brea in the heart of what is now Los Angeles. Dark Matter: Future Fossils is an artistic response to my on site research collaboration with paleo-scientists and museum curators at La Brea Tar Pits and Museum in Los Angeles. It uses the lens of art to reflect on their work researching the preservative properties of bitumen and the prehistoric stories revealed within of once living organisms, entrapment, deep time and death. Dark Matter: Future Fossils embeds materials from today in a fossil fuel tomb. It is for others to discover these future fossils, decipher their stories and decide how our fast time present became entrapped in the deadly time of fossil fuels.