2018, performance lecture
For about 7 years now, I’ve been fascinated by eoliths (eos + lith, dawn + stone).
These battered and chipped flint stones were once thought to be the oldest stone tools used by
ancient human hands. Although they are now known to be just a bunch of rocks and tell us nothing
about prehistoric humans, the eoliths tell us much about the late 19th century mind, particularly in
England where the eolith debate became a story of class, amateurism and the budding fields of
geology and anthropology.
I’ve been visiting institutions in the US and England that kept their eolith collections. Thanks to the
Maidstone Museum in Kent; Jeremy Coote and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. I spent much time
with archeologist Angela Muthana whose knowledge and humor is very much present in my
performance lecture Eoliths.
Here's an interview with scientist Violaine Sautter and myself on our shared Nomadic Nights at
The Cartier Foundation in Paris.
Eolith, Maidstone Museum, Kent
Performance still, Fondation Cartier.
Eoliths has been performed at:
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France, 2019
Bureau, New York, NY (US), 2018
Mt.Tremper Art, Phoenicia, New York (US), 2018