Encaustic on cradled birch board, plastic components, inert grit and fossils; (15cmx45cm) triptych

We now live in the Anthropocene, an epoch where humans dominate the Earth's surface geology. The surface of the planet is being noticeably altered by the production of long-lasting man-made materials, resulting in us entering an 'Age of Plastic'. Our love of plastic is now being left behind in our fossil record.

Plastics can travel thousands of miles, caught up in the 'great oceanic garbage patches' (gyres), or eventually be washed up on distant beaches. When plastics litter the landscape they become a part of the soil, often ending up in the sea and being consumed by and killing plankton, fish and seabirds. Plastics eventually sink to the sea floor, and then become a part of the strata of the future.

This work represents ‘what we leave behind’. Comprising plastic components, encaustic and fossils of knightia, a prehistoric fish that lived in the fresh water lakes and rivers of North America and Asia during the Eocene epoch, 33.9 to 56million years ago. The cradle of the work has been coated in layers of inert grit to represent the soil structure of the future as we are now degrading our soils at a faster rate than we can replace them.