Happy Birthday Mother Earth transforms the familiar ritual of a birthday celebration into a contemporary danse macabre. The project brings together symbols of celebration, consumption, death and renewal.
Animal remains, synthetic decorations, flowers, candles and fragments of cultivated nature are arranged as ceremonial offerings. What initially appears playful or festive gradually reveals a more disturbing order: nature has been reduced to an object, decorated, packaged and presented for human use.
The series reflects on the collision between the natural world and a civilisation built upon continuous consumption. It asks whether even the smallest fragment of nature must eventually become a commodity, a souvenir or a gift.
Mother Earth’s birthday becomes a moment of suspended celebration - a temporary pause in which to consider what remains after the party, and what kind of rebirth may still be possible.
The project was photographed on 4 × 5-inch sheet film.
All works from this series are available as limited-edition archival pigment prints (edition of 3), in two sizes: 100 × 80 cm and 60 × 50 cm. For enquiries: info@tomekalbin.com