Katie Paterson – Requiem

Four stars

 Life, the universe and everything are gathered together in Katie Peterson’s monumental new work, which draws together materials across the ages to create an epoch-spanning time capsule marking out the world’s ongoing destruction.

 

In the title work, 364 small glass jars are lined up side by side. Each jar contains the ground down remains of a fleeting moment, beginning with meteorite dust from before the Sun existed, with the world’s story so far ending with blood samples from a Polynesian snail reborn from extinction. The short descriptions of all 364 samples contained in the accompanying publication by Palaeobiology professor Jan Zalasiewicz capture the full mind-expanding breadth of Paterson’s endeavour.

 

With accompanying time-based works upstairs, during the exhibition’s run, the contents of each jar are poured into a large glass urn at the centre of the room. From first to last, this funereal rite creates a dried up cocktail of life on earth, as what once was is turned to dust. That dust has far from settled in Paterson’s elegy to times past, which nevertheless keeps a hopeful eye on the shape of things to come, making history as long as it goes.

 

Requiem runs at Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh until June 11.

 

The List, June 2022

 

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