ABOUT ARTIST:

Anna Kakhiani is a Ukrainian mixed media artist from Kovel, Volyn region, who is based in Kyiv and temporarily relocated to the Netherlands because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“I believe that art, like science, like religion, explores the parentage of our world. It is the way to understand how we have come to the point where we are now. And it has the same potential power, or even better, to build vectors into the future. Art always allows us to look between layers of reality, to find a different bread for daily philosophy for everyone.” A. K.

SUBMISSION: The traces of humanity 

5 types of rocks from periods of 5 extinctions, mirrored object.

From left to right: the massive Ordovician extinction, the Late Devonian extinction, the Permian mass extinction, the Late Triassic extinction, and the Late Cretaceous extinction. 

 

“There are no traces of cataclysm in stone. 

They are in you and me.

The world will turn into a dream today. 

Try to remember it. 

Someone will wake up again in millions of years, 

To light the fire.” 

Anna Kahiani 

 

“…when life achieved self-awareness through the human mind, it condemned its most beautiful creations to death.”

 Edward Osborne Wilson 

 

As early as the beginning of our era, Pliny said in “The Natural History” that stones preserve traces of catastrophes that caused the extinction of species. When we say that we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction of species, do we recognize ourselves as the cause? What will be the traces left by humanity for thousands of years to come? 

 

The Anthropocene is believed to have begun with the Industrial Revolution, the introduction of modern technology – turbines, railroads, chainsaws, and weapons – that made humanity a planet-changing force. 

We are facing a large-scale ecological catastrophe and keep talking about awareness in all spheres of life and about salvation scenarios for humanity, such as space exploration and life on other planets, satellites, and asteroids. But what will we take with us into the future, what will we take with us into space?

 

I think more and more that we still haven’t learned to exist with responsibility for every choice here and now, even for every personal decision, whether it’s a direct environmental issue or a political position. Because even the smallest choices have an impact on the dynamics of all life on planet Earth.

 

Russia’s war against Ukraine has been going on for a year now. And as much as many people would not like to think of the war as a political one, you will find countless environmental tragedies. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, 42 million tons of greenhouse gas have been released into the air; about 200,000 km2 of Ukraine’s territory will need demining, including nature reserves and wildlife; entire ecosystems have been destroyed and valuable habitats lost due to the hostilities; 2.4 million hectares of forests have been severely damaged; a total of 2,300 crimes against the environment have been documented.