Every End Is A New Beginning

The photographic work Every End Is A New Beginning depicts what appears to be a barren landscape; in fact, it is a magnification of a single grain of sand collected on the world's youngest island, Hunga Tonga, in the South Pacific. Devoid of human presence, the image appears like a memory of the early history of our planet, or a glimpse into a future era beyond us.

Humans have roamed this planet for a mere 300,000 years – less than 0.01 % of the Earth’s history. During our relatively short stay, we have managed to create a footprint on the entire ecosystem comparable to that of major natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and meteor impacts.

A dystopian future seems to approach as the end of the human era draws nearer. But life on Earth has transgressed limits and redefined itself again and again, and will most likely do so in a post-human era, even as large areas of land are submerged by rising seas.

The work is one outcome of SUPERFLEX’s expedition to Hunga Tonga aboard the ship Dardanella in 2018 as part of a larger research project, Deep Sea Minding, commissioned by TBA21-Academy under the programme The Current.