This piece is a semi-finalist for the 2026 MCBA Prize and on view in our gallery August 29 - November 29.
"Ostracod Rising tells the story of Earth, focusing on its smaller inhabitants and their resilience through many extinction events. Beginning with the formation of our planet in the Hadean Eon, each page factually describes a distinct period of time throughout the ages. It then moves from the current Holocene into an imaginary yet highly plausible future consisting of the Anthropocene, Benthoscene, Silerecene, and finally the Ostracocene, 104 million years in the future.
The text on each page creates a timeline describing the emergence and extinction of species, changes in temperature and climate, geologic and oceanic events, and the impacts of population explosion and collapse. Large watercolor images of small creatures dominate each page alongside running data points: the slowly increasing day length, shifting atmospheric composition, continuous continental drift, and the distance to the gradually receding moon.
The verso of this double-bound accordion is illustrated with playing cards, based on old “bicycle” cards from the late 19th century. The bicycle imagery has been replaced with depictions of geological influences from throughout Earth’s history: the forces of wind and water, volcanic eruptions and asteroid collisions, and the constant influence of moon and sun.
With a total of twenty-six pages, Ostracod Rising forms a half-deck of cards. The pun is deliberate: we are playing like fools with our earth’s delicate balance, not in possession of the full import of our decisions.
A portfolio of book board is bound with Asahi book cloth in deep near-black eggplant, evocative of deep space. Inside this portfolio, a 4-flap wrapper patterned with drawings of single-celled organisms holds the book itself. The double accordion Japanese-style binding keeps the recto and verso separate from each other, bound only at the folds. The washi tapes and the endpapers are suminagashi in the colors of sea and sun, in constant chaotic exchange.
Ostracod Rising was originally produced as an installation for Future Tense at the Beall Center for Art + Technology, part of Getty’s fall 2024 Pacific Standard Time Art: Art & Science Collide. Faculty at Stanford University’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve provided scientific guidance and inspiration as well as my first deep-time introduction to the extraordinary and ubiquitous ostracod. The unique original was completed in August of 2024 and was 30” x 20” x 5”, weighing 35 pounds. Holes were made in this copy to accommodate hanging at the Beall Center for a six month exhibit.
The “half-sized” version submitted for the MCBA prize is an edition of 26 and was completed in November of 2024. This editioned version of Ostracod Rising is pigment printed on Hiromi Asuka papers and bound with Awagami moenkopi unryu. Text is in Broadway and Cochin. The soft flow of the Asuka accordion is evocative of passing time.
While the textual content of the Earth’s history is supported by the factual research of others, all writing, interpretation, future predictions, drawings, watercolors, suminagashi, design, printing, binding and conception are entirely my fault." —Gai Wight
21.75" x 16.25" x 1"
*Consignment item. Not eligible for 10% membership discount. All consignment purchases are final and non-refundable once shipped.
This piece is a semi-finalist for the 2026 MCBA Prize and on view in our gallery August 29 - November 29.
"Ostracod Rising tells the story of Earth, focusing on its smaller inhabitants and their resilience through many extinction events. Beginning with the formation of our planet in the Hadean Eon, each page factually describes a distinct period of time throughout the ages. It then moves from the current Holocene into an imaginary yet highly plausible future consisting of the Anthropocene, Benthoscene, Silerecene, and finally the Ostracocene, 104 million years in the future.
The text on each page creates a timeline describing the emergence and extinction of species, changes in temperature and climate, geologic and oceanic events, and the impacts of population explosion and collapse. Large watercolor images of small creatures dominate each page alongside running data points: the slowly increasing day length, shifting atmospheric composition, continuous continental drift, and the distance to the gradually receding moon.
The verso of this double-bound accordion is illustrated with playing cards, based on old “bicycle” cards from the late 19th century. The bicycle imagery has been replaced with depictions of geological influences from throughout Earth’s history: the forces of wind and water, volcanic eruptions and asteroid collisions, and the constant influence of moon and sun.
With a total of twenty-six pages, Ostracod Rising forms a half-deck of cards. The pun is deliberate: we are playing like fools with our earth’s delicate balance, not in possession of the full import of our decisions.
A portfolio of book board is bound with Asahi book cloth in deep near-black eggplant, evocative of deep space. Inside this portfolio, a 4-flap wrapper patterned with drawings of single-celled organisms holds the book itself. The double accordion Japanese-style binding keeps the recto and verso separate from each other, bound only at the folds. The washi tapes and the endpapers are suminagashi in the colors of sea and sun, in constant chaotic exchange.
Ostracod Rising was originally produced as an installation for Future Tense at the Beall Center for Art + Technology, part of Getty’s fall 2024 Pacific Standard Time Art: Art & Science Collide. Faculty at Stanford University’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve provided scientific guidance and inspiration as well as my first deep-time introduction to the extraordinary and ubiquitous ostracod. The unique original was completed in August of 2024 and was 30” x 20” x 5”, weighing 35 pounds. Holes were made in this copy to accommodate hanging at the Beall Center for a six month exhibit.
The “half-sized” version submitted for the MCBA prize is an edition of 26 and was completed in November of 2024. This editioned version of Ostracod Rising is pigment printed on Hiromi Asuka papers and bound with Awagami moenkopi unryu. Text is in Broadway and Cochin. The soft flow of the Asuka accordion is evocative of passing time.
While the textual content of the Earth’s history is supported by the factual research of others, all writing, interpretation, future predictions, drawings, watercolors, suminagashi, design, printing, binding and conception are entirely my fault." —Gai Wight
21.75" x 16.25" x 1"
*Consignment item. Not eligible for 10% membership discount. All consignment purchases are final and non-refundable once shipped.
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