The Petriverse of Pierre Jardin: by Paul A. Harris Main Menu Paul A. Harris

L'Air du Calcaire

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This conglomeration of collected limestones opens a dialogue between two significant European geo-historical sites. The Lutetian limestone piece, found at a construction site in Park Square Suzanne Buisson (Montmartre), is a typical example of what came to be known as “Paris stone” because of its formative role in the city’s geologic and architectural history. Today, the stone has become a highly desired world-wide commodity; the southern Oise has submitted the first ever application for a building stone Appellation Contrôlée. The “coquillages” fossils in the rock piece evoke its origins in the Lutetian Age (47.8 – 41.3 millions years ago) of the Palogene Period subdividing Eocene rocks, when the Paris basin was periodically covered by sea water; the geologic age is derived from the ancient Latin name for Paris (Lutetia).

The bryozoan limestone pieces balanced on the block were collected on the Danish island of Zealand at Stevns Klint, designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2014. Composed of skeletons of tiny bryozoan (moss animal) creatures living in colonies, the sedimented rock accumulates slowly in strata; chalk-covered chert nodules have replaced much of the limestone through diagenesis. The amazing array of fossils found at Stevns Klint inspired Danish geologist Johan Georg Forchammer to call it Fiskeler (“Fish Clay”) in 1825. The cliff face offers a striking exposure of the K/T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) Boundary, a spectacular mass extinction event 65 million years ago when an asteroid impact caused the demise of the dinosaurs and more than half of living species at the time. The theory that an asteroid impact caused the K/T extinction was formulated by Walter and Luis Alvarez, who found that this thin layer in the rock record contained a high concentration of Iridium that only exists in meteorites. (See their wonderfully-titled book T-Rex and the Crater of Doom.)

The fossil composition of limestone comprises an uncanny form of  lithic life; calcium-rich and water-soluble, it erodes into porous forms that prompt pareidolic projection. These fantasies expose skeletons in the closet of our petrified imagination, a mnemonic stratum embedded in our geologic oceanic origins. Here, the hole in one rock and round hollow impressions in the other echo the eyes in the figures of the “L’Homme et L’Oiseau” print on the adjacent wall, lending a site-specific dimension to the installation.

For Sydney Levy, Summer Solstice, 2018
 

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