Exhibition Summary
One of Our Fossils
The idea for One of Our Fossils comes from a scientific paper. It predicts that humanity’s most lasting remnants will be plastic, nuclear waste, and chicken bones. Adam Phong chooses chicken bones for their absurdity and because they represent a world obsessed with making everything cheaper and faster. The exhibition imagines how future civilizations might interpret these bones.
It speculates on the myths and stories they might create from them. Phong finds it absurd that, despite our power and ability to foresee the future, our attention span and sense of ‘now’ have rapidly narrowed. One might expect that more foresight would grant a longer view of time. Instead, it is as if we are mentally exhausted from dealing with the present, leaving us with no energy to imagine the future.
One of Our Fossils responds to that condition. It presents a space to reflect and have feelings about the deep future. The bones serve as a starting point to consider what kind of world we will leave behind and how future civilizations might try to make sense of it. It’s an invitation to consider both what we are now and what we are becoming.
Curatorial Statement
One of Our Fossils
The future is a period that promises both dreams and concerns. Therefore, the future for humans represents a form of projection of desires and unwillingness to live in the present. In the world of art, strangeness/uniqueness is often interpreted through ideas that are considered to transcend time. Many avant-garde works that are misunderstood or difficult to accept can be categorized as pieces that are ahead of their time (or ‘may’ make sense in the future). This way of thinking is quite similar to what shamans or fortune tellers do and is certainly different from the method scientists use to predict the future.
Scientists do it by collecting and analyzing data, while shamans make predictions through imagination based on metaphysical or natural phenomena. The world of art seems to exist in between, though it tends to lean toward the latter category. The art world, or the artistic world in general, largely relies on intuition and taste. Regarding the future, prophecy, ritual, and matters of intuition and taste, Adam Phong's solo exhibition titled One of Our Fossils presents a speculative artistic method related to the potential traces of today's humans in the future. Just as we study and recognize a series of events related to past civilizations through history and archaeological findings, One of Our Fossils positions the audience as future humans imagining today's civilization. The audience, being from the present, is then transported to the future only to trace back what is happening today. As absurd as it sounds.
Absurdity is another key point that Adam aims to convey in his solo exhibition. Humanity is often in awe of the wonders of past civilizations, such as discoveries of dinosaur fossils or remnants of past grandeur like massive monuments. In One of Our Fossils, Adam highlights the chicken bone as a marker of our era. Today, poultry meat is one of the most consumed foods globally and is predicted to continue increasing in the coming years. One of Our Fossils raises a profoundly absurd question: what if chicken bones were one of the clues to trace a period of human civilization?
When we revisit the topic of soothsayers and prophecies, there are numerous shamanistic cultures, particularly in Southeast Asia, that use chickens as a medium in rituals. The chicken (in the form of eggs, alive, or even as a prepared dish) is a fascinating phenomenon today that could potentially shape the future of humanity. Adam views chicken bones as a specific object capable of traveling beyond space and time, both from a scientific and imaginative perspective.
One of Our Fossils presents three sections of a space, each displaying a different composition of chicken bones. Viewers are greeted by a large installation in the first room, resembling both a wave and a time-travel tunnel—a dynamic and monumental form that leads into the next room, where several smaller, randomly placed monuments stand. The final room evokes a ritualistic atmosphere, with chicken bone compositions becoming smaller and more intricate. The arrangement of the rooms and the formalist shapes of the chicken bones project how future humans might attempt to trace back and understand the civilization of today. One of Our Fossils becomes a fascinating speculation on how humans strive to grasp the concept of space and time.
What is space and time? What is the future, the present, and the past? In this exhibition, Adam presents his future relics (or past relics within the context of the future?) alongside his sound compositions that represent an imagined space. The combination of various frequencies creates an immersive experience, allowing viewers to explore the caves of the future as if they were archaeologists. In this sense, Adam positions himself as an artist aspiring to be a future archaeologist, while simultaneously orchestrating natural environments within a gallery setting.
One of Our Fossils represents Adam Phong's latest expression of his artistic anxieties. Adam positions himself as an artist who seeks to grasp the meaning and significance of art through his creative practices. Is art a way to remember the past, savor the present, and predict the future in a more imaginative and democratic manner? One of Our Fossils is an effort to interpret the present by first exploring remnants from the future. Chicken bones serve as a symbol of today's human creativity.
Artist Biography
Adam Phong (b. 2002, Malaysia) is an artist who works across installation, sculpture, sound and scent. Currently, his work studies our times and questions how future civilizations will interpret our era. He explores scientific concepts and their broader implications for humanity. Past exhibitions include Livingbribe, G13 Gallery, Malaysia, 2023; Ways of Seeing, Cult Gallery, Malaysia, 2023; Alchemy, Sareng Gallery, Malaysia, 2022; Wish You Were Here, Dalek Art Gallery, Antwerp, 2022. He is a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, 2022.
Curator Biography
Currently based in
Jakarta, Indonesia, Bob Edrian (b. 1988) is an independent curator, as well as
Managing Director at Audial Plane (Orange Cliff Records). Focusing his research
on the development of sound in the arts and media art, his curatorial projects
include “Bandung New Emergence Vol. 6: Listen!” (2016), “Intomedia” (2017),
“Soemardja Sound Art Project” (2018), “International Media Arts Festival Instrumenta”
(2018-2019), “Pancaran Citra Lokal” (2020), and “Universal Iteration”
(2021-2023). He won the 2016 Curatorial Research Grant funded by Selasar
Sunaryo Art Space and the Sidharta Aboejono Martoredjo (SAM) Fund for Arts and Ecology
(Indonesia), and was selected as one of the participants in the Para Site
Workshops for Emerging Art Professionals in Hong Kong (2018) and CULTIVATE: Professional
Development for Curators and Art Managers by in-tangible institute in Bangkok
(2024). His recent work featured in The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sound
Art (2020), published by Bloomsbury Publishing, London.
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