Michael Wang
       
Carboniferous
Carboniferous
A series of photographs depicts the fossilized forms of ancient plants from coal deposits around the world. These florae formed the earth’s first forests. As coal, they would provide the fuel for the industrial revolution. While the material imaginary of modernity is dominated by inorganic matter—steel, concrete, and glass—these photographs, produced in a modernist idiom, reveal the hidden organic origins of the modern world.

Mariopteris, Upper Silesia, 2018. From the series Carboniferous.

A selection of photographs from this series was included in Manifesta 12, Palermo, 2018.


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2018
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