The new year has brought a new Fossils from the Future entity to Kelowna’s downtown area, bringing the total number of these puzzling objects to seven. The most recent one to appear can be found attached to a light standard in the 200 block of Bernard Avenue near the entrance to Kelly O’Bryan’s restaurant.
This capsule contains a fossilized human hand print. The accompanying info asks whether this was noteworthy to people in the future because we will evolve to having more or fewer fingers.
This arrival follows the discovery just before Christmas of another fossil in Stuart Park, immediately north of the ice rink and fire pit. This capsule contains a number of test tubes with liquid inside that is described as “Petroleum Distillate, commonly used before its depletion in mid-21st century.” Can you imagine a future where we no longer use oil? What might it be like?
People are encouraged to join the conversation – snap a photo, tweet about it, post on Facebook, or even film their own video, and use the hashtag #futurefossils.
The latest capsule is the seventh piece in an ongoing temporary public art project entitled Fossils from the Future. It is being produced by Okanagan-based artist Johann Wessels, and is presented by the Kelowna Art Gallery.
The underlying idea of this public art project is for pedestrians to come across strange looking, intriguing, and mysterious objects and to consider that if these objects really have been sent to our present time from the future – could humans from the future be trying to warn us about something? Are our future selves trying to encourage us to alter the course of history?
People interested in discovering all of the Fossils from the Future will find a newly created map online at www.kelownaartgallery.com/futurefossils. This website also features photographs, videos, articles and a board that displays posts on social media that have used the hashtag, #futurefossils.