Phantoms of The Great Dying

250 million years ago, Earth experienced a mass extinction that wiped out nearly 90% of its species. Trees, insects, proto-mammals and fish, etc., died out. Among these victims, trilobites are the most well known. Their fames are purely posthumous: all we have seen are their fossils in endless supply.

Artist Colleen Maynard and I are fascinated by the Permian Extinction, or The Great Dying, and would like to raise awareness for this significant chapter in our natural history. Colleen’s vivid drawings bring the extinct creatures back to life. I travel to sites to project and photograph them. We conjure the ghosts from Permian period to haunt us in our living spaces.

Have you seen human skulls in paintings? This is a tradition in art that we call memento mori, or remember death. It reminds the viewers that everyone dies. Phantoms of the The Great Dying is memento mori’s modern rendition, expanded to the scale of the entire species. Mass extinctions occurred many times on Earth, and we can be certain that they will happen again. In fact, scientists theorize that the sixth mass extinction is undergoing. Which species will be wiped out this time?