Future Fossils

If life as we know it were to come to a sudden stop, what would archeologists find decades from now? Future Fossils presents a possible view into that frozen moment in time and culture. The assemblage of work here — conjured relics — is created by artists based in North America, Latin America, and Europe. Though each artist is following their own trajectory and exploring diverse issues, when viewed together as the remains from some kind of apocalypse, we get a glimpse into our current way of living. In this sense, the works in this exhibition together form a kind of contemporary Pompeii.

Actual fossils come in different forms, depending on the object or creature preserved and the site conditions where this transformation occurred. The works in this exhibition recall these forms remarkably closely. Some are casts from the original; some are skeletal remains; some are captured within viscous, hardening material; and some are depicted in negative space, as a cavity. While many are based on the human body, others spring from material culture, such as electronic devices. They all offer a retrospective view of the present, a perspective that can be read as either critical or laudatory, depending on one’s system of values.

Future Fossils was organized by the MassArt Art Museum, Boston, MA and curated by c2 – curatorsquared, a curatorial partnership between Ginger Gregg Duggan and Judith Hoos Fox. c2 develops exhibitions of international, cross-media contemporary art and design that explore current issues in culture.

Artists include:

AI WEIWEI | SANFORD BIGGERS | IZAAK BRANDT | JEDEDIAH CAESAR | JULIAN CHARRIÈRE | TANIA PÉREZ CÓRDOVA | LIZ GLYNN | MAUREEN GRUBEN | MATTHEW ANGELO HARRISON | WILLIAM LAMSON | JAMES LEWIS | JEAN-LUC MOULÈNE | REYNIER LEYVA NOVO | STUDIO DRIFT | DO HO SUH | CLARISSA TOSSIN | MARION VERBOOM | NARI WARD | RACHEL WHITEREAD