WORLDS TO COME

In 002008-9 we traveled to five sites of nuclear testing in Nevada and New Mexico, participated in two public tours of the NTS (Nevada Test Site), drove to the gates of WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) outside of Carlsbad, NM, and attended the annual October open house at the Trinity site.

Our travels passed through the wreckage of former worlds. Worlds that far preceded human existence on the earth. These worlds rose and fell within a timescale greatly out of sync with that of the human. We saw bases of mountain ranges plumb the earth at precipitous angles, reaching to depths that we could only imagine from the surface. We crossed fault points within great basins and traversed the stretch marks of the landscape. We stood at the edges of playas and salt lakes once linked by vast oceanic bodies of water but now separated by hundreds of miles of desert. Volcanic cones and lava flows rose as mile-markers punctuating the highway. The only certain future is that there are endless worlds to come.

the scent of creosote and sage. left with a strong impression, impressed upon. tectonic rules. ever-changing skies. days linked together only by a sense of depth. going deeper. continuous upheaval. lost bearings. we sank beneath the surface and lived amid the wreckage of former worlds. we headed off into these worlds. down dirt roads below the lines. forgotten spaces. ancient lake beds. linkage of histories. rendered speechless, irrelevant. dislocated. left in awe. setting out again. and again. uncertainty reigns on this kind of journey. seemingly endless. exposure. dry. cities, fearless and blind. teetering at the brink of extinction. falling out. dead already. proximity and distance become interchangeable. anomalies. distinctly located at the edges. edges of ourselves, the landscape—and comprehension. summoning up. delving into the earth. shafts. formations. cavities. chambers. caverns. depressions. batholiths. calderas. great risings and sinkings of land. all rock and mineral salts. invisible forces. animal instincts. rising miracles. mysteries. we arrived here no longer the same.

The resulting field guide creates extensions from site to site, from ourselves to those who were present at these sites decades ago, and from humankind’s short history to the planet’s long dynamic past and future. The Worlds To Come field guide was a component of the Worlds To Come exhibition at Sweet Lorraine Gallery, Red Hook, Brooklyn, November 002009

8.5" x 11" (unfolds to 17"x 22" poster)
Edition of 1000, newsprint
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