Urn (173)

Gathered September 10, 2022, this web was weighted with the ashes of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, the forest remains carried by an easterly wind to Portland, Oregon.

This piece documents the Double Creek Fire, detected 8/30/2022 and active in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest and Hells Canyon National Recreation Area along the Imnaha River corridor.

More broadly, it documents global conditions contributing to the increased incidence of wildfires worldwide: namely, climate change. It gestures to a cause.

These ash-laden webs are urns, holders of the remains of a world. They are a pause and a portrait. Our world is burning, in part as a consequence of our choices as a species–our options for alternate choices constrained by arbitrary borders (nation, race,as a species, or whole, sharing a small planet engulfed by intraverseable space.

These webs are messages from the future. They speak to interconnectedness and the cost of artificial separations. I am recording these messages as trace fossils. They are a warning. They come from a future warning us away. They say, One.

Product Handling: These are not functional wares, and they are not dishwasher safe. The ash in these pieces cannot be melted into the porcelain and creates a significantly raised print of the web. While this is a trace fossil durable for hundreds of years, the ashen web is susceptible to chipping and wear if repeatedly handled.

Approximately 5.25” tall x 3.25” wide.