Ostracod Rising, 2024

Ostracod Rising explores the intertwined relationships between Earth’s rotation and atmosphere, the moon’s proximity, shifting tectonic plates, the rise and fall of sea levels, and the ebb and flow of life as envisioned over a 4.6 billion year timeline. The project touches on previous extinctions and anticipated future extinctions, de-centering the traditional anthropocentric account of Earth’s history in favor of the populations of small creatures who have thrived on Earth for hundreds of millions of years. The ostracod is among the planet’s most numerous species, destined to emerge from the seas and take to land and sky in this speculative and hopeful future.

→ Behind the Science

We tend to make sharp distinctions between living and nonliving systems (biology, geology, physics), but they are deeply intertwined. Four billion years of geophysical forces—from the spin of the earth to tidal patterns to volcanic explosions—have profoundly influenced Earth’s life forms. Small creatures have had an overwhelming impact on this dynamic. Cyanobacteria created the oxygenated atmosphere that allowed our evolution. Innumerous bacteria inhabit our skin and our guts, support our food production, and consume our waste products. Ostracod Rising pays homage to this world of tiny beings and posits a bright future in which they reign supreme.

”The work is a story that I’ve chosen to tell about how the Earth’s systems have operated in the past, where they are now, and how they might be in the future. The emergence of new patterns and behaviors becomes obvious in this book, as do feedback loops, seen in the call and response dynamics between symbiotic species.“ —Gail Wight

Gail Wight is a visual artist constructing biological allegories through book arts, video, and experimental media. She holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, where she was a Javits Fellow, and a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art. Wight’s art has been exhibited internationally and is held in numerous publicand private collections. She is Professor Emerita in Stanford University’s Department of Art & Art History, where she continues to teach book arts and hybrid printmaking. Hexapodarium (2017), a publication about her work, includes essays and a conversation between Wight and writer Lawrence Weschler.

→ Conversation: Gail Wight