Tamarisk and Clam Auto-Fossilization Memorial
The great Bathtub Ring of the sinking Lake Mead is a mineralized and neo-fossilized landscape of young ruins caused by the diminishing reservoir. This monument to abandoned futures provides a conceptual backdrop for Tamarisk and Clam Auto-Fossilization Memorial. The bronze cast portion uses traditional monument materiality to retain archival documentation of plant and animal remains that mark the ground of lands once long underwater. These fragments are reimagined to seek queer renewal within the liminal spaces of time created by the failed, abandoned, and discarded. “Auto-fossilization” is my term to describe the intentional release of a failed past to make room for future transformation, inspired by geologic change. Engaging with disturbed landscapes and discarded materials, I relate this to queer abandonment and the subsequently-earned intuition to seek love and renewal in ruin.
