Impermanence

 Libraries seek to preserve transmissions of thought, energy, stories, vibrations, and echoes sent out into the universe for all time. But what happens when we’re gone?

The wooden object at the center of Impermanence contains 12-inch slides to arrange and layer six images that symbolize the paradox of libraries: a sense of timelessness and forever, as captured in images from the James Webb Space Telescope and some of the earliest known cave paintings from Lascaux, France–in opposition to the impermanence of all things, depicted by mold, dust, faded handwriting, and human hands. 

Overhead, a series of sculptures feature discarded, obsolete, or orphaned library materials, such as microfilm, LP records, Betacam tapes, 35mm slides, and 16mm film. 

A directional speaker, also located overhead, plays the audio track embedded below.