The cylindrical glass objects in the installation No Prospect for an End were created using a glass-casting process and are reminiscent of ice cores, soil samples, or industrial artifacts. The molten glass was mixed with copper sulfate and silver nitrate—substances also used in photographic developing processes. Color gradients, crystals, and streaks form inside the cylinders, as if the materials had been frozen in a chemical or geological transformation process. In combination with the bronze pedestal element, the semi-transparent bodies recall natural history presentations of minerals or fossils—but also evoke technical devices or storage modules that react sensitively to temperature or electrical impulses.

Marmy’s title, No Prospect for an End, references a quote from the eighteenth-century geologist James Hutton: “No vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.” This phrase expresses a view of the Earth where time is not linear—there are only cyclical processes, transformations, and transitions. Our own imprints on this planet are also becoming part of this geological history: since the 1950s, the impacts of the Anthropocene—such as microplastics, fertilizers, ash, or isotopes from nuclear tests—have been detectable in lake sediments, ice, and rock layers

Matheline Marmy is an artist currently working in Geneva (CH). She is pursuing her art practice predominantly through sculpture. She draws inspiration from tensions between the natural and the artificial and active exchanges between things and their environment, to create alternative scenarios. She holds a BA from ECAL in Lausanne and an MFA from the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam.