Several recent art-based field trips were spent alongside specialist geologists and others studying the habitat of living microbial rocks , stromatolites, situated in one of two bays in the Gathaagudu, Shark Bay, Western Australia. My research extended to the archives of the offsite facility of WA Museum Boola Bardip, and the collection facility of the Museum of Earth Sciences Department of Geology, University of Western Australia. The stromatolites and their watery environments of hyper-saline, warm tidal patterns extends to other stromatolite fieldwork undertaken in remote sites in Nyamal, Pilbara where 3.4 billion years of tidal patterns were observed lithified in rock strata . This research will form the conceptual framework of this project, sensitive to non-human-centred perspectives of patterns in tidal histories and future speculation.

Fossilised Stromatolite outcrop

graphite frottage

Archaean Waters, Distilled Even 2023 280 x 150 cm

Archaean Waters , Distilled Even 2023 deals with entanglements of time, location, and matter through situated fieldwork and material explorations . I made multiple graphite rubbings onsite of a rocky sandstone outcrop which formed at a time when the continents were mostly soft and underwater. Over nearly two billion years, the loose sandy sediments of this rock were sculpted into ripples by an ancient shallow water body. The slow and gentle movement of thewater caused the sediments to solidify and lithify.

 These rubbings aim to re-sediment the sands beneath the Archaean tides and reactivate its slow-moving water current, through the repeated action of rubbings , returning the stone to its watery state.