ONCE WE RULED THE WORLD
CARBONEM (2025)

"Carbōnem draws the past, present, and future into a single sculpture. Its hand-cut, charred wood is etched with ferns—subtle emblems of prehistoric life and direct echoes of the age of dinosaurs. The burned wood itself speaks to decay: fire as both destruction and creation, a transformative force that reduces matter to its essentials while opening the possibility for renewal. This technique, used throughout Tom Herck’s oeuvre, underscores the cyclical nature of life, loss, and regeneration.

Rising through these ancient forms are narcissen, long symbols of ego and vanitas, reflecting the human present and our persistent tendency toward self-importance. Interwoven with these organic elements is the geometry of digital circuitry, a gesture toward the technological world we have built and the trajectory we continue to follow. Copper-toned edges evoke exposed wiring and the interiors of our devices, while the black plexiglass “mirrors” allude to self-reflection—suggesting how digital surfaces have become sites through which we observe, construct, and project ourselves.

Taken together, Carbōnem becomes a contemporary memento mori: a reminder of impermanence at a moment when our species stands at a pivotal threshold in its evolution as Homo sapiens, profoundly shaped—and accelerated—by the digital revolution.

In Carbōnem, primordial nature, human identity, and technological structure converge, forming a layered timeline carved into a single object.