“The Archive of Human Nature”

2020
installation

artist statement

“The Archive of Human Nature” holds evidence of human ingenuity: a collected sample of material history from three hundred thousand years of human life on Earth. Accumulated without intentional bias, the objects on display are preserved for evaluation by all species.  This exhibit acknowledges the immortality of the items we have created, which are also the traces that we will leave behind. This repository posits our behaviors and actions tied to these objects as questionable, and asks if our dependence on these objects can be reimagined. The archive will expand alongside planetary evolution and extinction, persisting for as long as human nature is relevant to life on this planet. Through the act of archiving, this exhibit encourages us to question tools for existence from the perspective of other species.