The Devil’s Helix considers a reinterpretation of fossils of the past while questioning the conclusions made of the marks we leave from the future. This digitally manipulated, scaled up iteration of a photographic collage forms part of the artist’s ongoing investigation into future fossils and the implications of human activity on the stratigraphic record.

Impressions of activity recorded in stone – traces of long since absent bodies – collectively imagine the daily lives of beings; how they navigated the landscape, the necessities for survival, and the impacts they left on the earth;

Rest, travel, dwell, graze, feed, trap, hunt, poise, escape, build, breed.

Erika’s sculptural practice playfully explores the relationship between bodies and geologies, drawing on her experience as a rock climber and from stories gathered in the landscape to create speculative folkloric narratives of the deep-time future. Ideas knot and materials loop throughout her practice, reminding us of our entangled connection to cycles and processes of the landscape, and exploring the tensions that arise from living in this geological era.

www.erikacann.com

VENUE: PLATFORM GALLERY

This project appears as part of Exeter Phoenix’s Platform series, which offers artists based in the South West region opportunities to test out ideas, new work and recent developments in their practice.