Pompeii 2079: Cement Life Preserver by Ann Schnake
By Ann Schnake
Pompeii 2079: Cement Life Preserver + Cotton Rope
Cast cement, rope
20 x 20 inches
2016, original re-cast 2020
A life size cement life preserver is debris from a future carbonized world. Cement, first made with lime and volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius during the Roman empire was the fixative that froze the ancient city of Pompeii, Italy in 79 AD, nearly two thousand years ago. Pompeii’s citizens anticipated the Vesuvian eruption but did not respond to it’s devastating power and potential consequences. Today cement makes up 7% of the worlds carbon emissions, and its industrial production is only outweighed by that of fossil fuel. Part relic, part imagination, part detritus from an epoch of global extremes, these works explore the poetics of rising waters, collective precarity, futile actions and weighted possibility. Accompanied by a booklet Passport to Another Time.
This piece is better picked up at gallery — it is heavy!!