The title of this series refers to the art found in the caves in Lascaux,
France. I use Lascaux as a symbol of the earliest evidence of man's presence.
The drawings at Lascaux are about 13,000 years old, and the oldest Paleolithic art we know of is only slightly older, about 40,000 years old. Where was
mankind in the four or five billion years before that?
No one knows. We know almost nothing about where we came from, how we
got here, and the extent to which we have evolved. A wall separates us
from our shared ancestry. In this series, I chip away at that wall in search
of our common roots. What appears in the cracks are tableaux impregnated
with cultural icons from around the globe across all ages. I call these
image-encrusted surfaces "Cultural
Fossils".
Certain images from Before Lascaux contain images floating in the surface,
in many, the imagery is buried and appears only where the covering surface
appears to have been broken away. In other reliefs, one sees layers of
imagery beneath the wall. For instance, in Past Present, the layer closest
to the surface contains cultural icons, the second, deeper, layer contains
only the imprint of dinosaurs and sea shells. It the lower right the wall
and both layers appear to be broken open. In the space we see a symbol
of human presence. Could we be witnesses of the eternal mystery?
Before Lascaux poses more questions than it proposes answers. Once again
I ponder our role in the mystery. I ask if our knowledge could be comprised
of discontinuous glimpses from which we deduce a credible story? We see
only the surfaces of things. What deeper truths lie hidden behind them?
Where do we fit in the vast mystery surrounding us? Couldn't there be
much more to life awaiting our discovery?
