Before and After
Before and After
This diptych pairs a roadside dinosaur statue with a hand-painted fossil shop sign, both photographed in their natural habitat: the American desert tourist economy. The title “Before and After” frames the temporal joke—living dinosaur above, fossilized remains below—while examining how prehistory gets commodified into roadside spectacle.
The green cartoon dinosaur, crude and cheerful, represents extinction packaged as family entertainment. Below, the weathered sign offers actual fossils (“FISH, SHARK TOOTH, BUGS, DINOSAUR BONES, DINOSAUR TOOTH”) with the crucial detail: “WE ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS.” Both transform deep time into commerce, turning 65 million years of extinction into photo opportunities and impulse purchases. The desert landscape unifies them—the same terrain that preserved ancient bones now hosts fiberglass replicas. The work documents American roadside attraction culture where scientific wonder becomes kitsch, and you can buy pieces of the Mesozoic Era next to the gift shop register.
Essay written: November 2025
This diptych pairs a roadside dinosaur statue with a hand-painted fossil shop sign, both photographed in their natural habitat: the American desert tourist economy. The title “Before and After” frames the temporal joke—living dinosaur above, fossilized remains below—while examining how prehistory gets commodified into roadside spectacle.
The green cartoon dinosaur, crude and cheerful, represents extinction packaged as family entertainment. Below, the weathered sign offers actual fossils (“FISH, SHARK TOOTH, BUGS, DINOSAUR BONES, DINOSAUR TOOTH”) with the crucial detail: “WE ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS.” Both transform deep time into commerce, turning 65 million years of extinction into photo opportunities and impulse purchases. The desert landscape unifies them—the same terrain that preserved ancient bones now hosts fiberglass replicas. The work documents American roadside attraction culture where scientific wonder becomes kitsch, and you can buy pieces of the Mesozoic Era next to the gift shop register.
Essay written: November 2025