PROGNOSTICATORS
This installation is called Prognosticators, named for the universal child’s game of predicting the future — “fortune teller” or “cootie catcher” in the U.S. and “solnitza” in Bulgaria. The game exists in some form in most cultures.
Sited in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sofia, Bulgaria, this installation of folded tarpaper addresses issues of fossil fuels – referencing the 113 states, provinces and countries that produce oil. Each “prognosticator” is numbered for one of the countries. The installation’s presence on the gallery’s white marble floor is silent and dark testament to questions about our future – questions due to climate change, oil spills, water contamination, destruction of ecosystems…
Ordinary roofing paper and its smelly blackness evoke memories. I grew up making frequent visits to the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, where artifacts continue to be excavated from the ooze. For me, this underground source of fossils, bones, fuel and prehistory is analogous to the upwelling of images from an unknown source.
Click on photos to see slide show.
Photos: Ivan Peikov.