La vie des atomes / The Life of Atomes

 

Nothing disappears, everything remains.

 

In the natural sciences, one of the important basic principles is that matter and energy cannot be destroyed, only transformed. This means that the atoms that build up e.g. a hare don’t disappear when the hare dies. The hare decays, but atoms that built the hare are now found elsewhere in nature. The atoms that existed millions of years ago are the same atoms that exist today.

 

. . .

 

One day, a large part of the forest where I usually walk was gone, cut down. The spruce bark beetle had caused so much damage that the only solution was to fell all the trees within a larger area. It was a disturbing sight and feeling, of being lost, disoriented, the gaze wandering and searching in vain for well-known points of reference. 

But nature will heal, new vegetation will eventually emerge in the void. 

 

The paper in my objects is made from trees that stood elsewhere, in another time. With old book pages and found twigs from “my” forest, I recreate my own nature. 

 

Nothing disappears, everything remains