cabinet · cur · 03

cabinet of curiosities · case no. 03

a fossil mollusc

an ammonite, set in dark matrix. the chambers held water once; now they hold the printed shadow of having held water. the spiral is exact and not exact — like a shell but argued with by stone.

the curator turns it counter-clockwise and the room moves the other way by a small fraction. an effect, possibly. an effect of looking.

field-note · sea retreated, c.155 million years; the shell did not move.

nautilus · starfish · circle · sea · naturata

atlas · return