Respiration
3D-rendered animation combining encyclopedic entries on oxygen's role in Earth's geological and biological history with speculative imagery. Ambulances are shown immobilized in an icy landscape resembling Snowball Earth, connecting geological processes of deep time to the precarities of modern existence.
The work reflects on the paradox of oxygen. Its arrival made multicellular life possible, yet the Great Oxidation Event nearly wiped out the anaerobic organisms that once thrived in an oxygen-free world. This transformation, driven by cyanobacteria’s photosynthesis, altered the planet, paving the way for new lifeforms and eventual human evolution.
The ambulances are trapped in a frozen terrain resembling Snowball Earth, a period of global glaciation that followed the Great Oxidation Event. Their flashing emergency lights resemble living organisms, pulsing with a rhythmic vitality that contrasts with their static state.
Commonly associated with immediate interventions to preserve life, these vehicles are depicted as dependent on fossil fuels, resources formed from ancient life destroyed during Earth’s transformative history. The combustion of fossil fuels in their engines relies on oxygen, tying contemporary crises of energy and survival to the distant past when oxygen reshaped the planet’s conditions for life.