Might as well score the end of the world ... let's start with "Ethnicolor" from Jean Michel Jarre's incredible album "Zoolook." This track features samples of Laurie Anderson among many other spoken word sections. It is an appropriate way to kick things off, right from the first howling, screaming moments.
https://jeanmicheljarre.com/
https://laurieanderson.com/
Showing posts with label dystopia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dystopia. Show all posts
Friday, July 10, 2026
Friday, October 18, 2019
BEAUTY: Painting--Ian Francis
The terrifying narrative in painter Ian Francis' new series Call of the Void is both a warning and a prediction of things to come. He explains:
"The phrase 'call of the void' refers to the strange sensation when you’re at a great height and gravity seems to begin pulling you at an oblique angle towards the edge, despite having no suicidal intentions. In this show, I was interested in exploring the strained relationship between the modern world we’ve created and its animal inhabitants, at a time where we seem to be at the edge of an ecological tipping point. I wanted to make paintings of dystopian dreamscapes, with people interacting with strange, reconstructed forms of nature."
"I’ve always loved technology, futurism and the world we’ve created for ourselves, but it’s hard not to be horrified by the impact our way of life is having on the planet," Francis adds. "Even nominally wild animals now exist within the boundaries of a human-constructed world they didn’t evolve for. Turning back the clock seems impossible, so the only real hope appears to be relying on technological solutions to our problems, but even if that’s in some way successful it feels like the result will be a strange and different world. I was drawn to the idea of creating images of constructed animals by layering together different elements, including skeletons, polygonal structures, empty outlines and garish colours. I wanted to create a sense of facsimile, an idea of a beautiful natural thing that has been lost and replaced with something with a similar form, but distinctly different."
I am reminded of the opening credits of the newest version of "Westworld"on HBO in which we see bison and horses being bio-created in a lab. And I also can't help but flash on a scene from the classic sci-fi film "Blade Runner" where Harrison Ford sees an owl fly in the penthouse apartment of Tyrell. Sean Young comes in and asks him if he likes the owl to which he asks, "Is it artificial?" Her curt answer: "Of course it is."
Exactly how much are we going to lose from climate catastrophe? How many animal species, how many plants species, how many eco systems, how much land, how many humans? These are the questions I ask myself daily, but I still have to make breakfast, I still have to feed my cats, I still have to live here and now. It is creating a cognitive schism for many of us to live with this specter while trying to maintain the momentum necessary for daily life.
Top to bottom: A Crowd Tries To Determine If A Shark Is Real And/Or A Threat; A Girl Waits For A Field Of Tigers To Wake Up; A Group Of People Try To Communicate With A New Artificial Whale; At The Beach, People Try To Get Closer To The Birds; Baobab Tree Collapse; Bird Toys/Predator; Cavalry Advance; Far Into The Desert Two People Encounter The Construction Of A Mammoth; Highway Emergency Telephone Couple; Mechanical Buffalo Journey; Synchronised Ritual Bear Construction
https://www.ifrancis.co.uk/
"The phrase 'call of the void' refers to the strange sensation when you’re at a great height and gravity seems to begin pulling you at an oblique angle towards the edge, despite having no suicidal intentions. In this show, I was interested in exploring the strained relationship between the modern world we’ve created and its animal inhabitants, at a time where we seem to be at the edge of an ecological tipping point. I wanted to make paintings of dystopian dreamscapes, with people interacting with strange, reconstructed forms of nature."
"I’ve always loved technology, futurism and the world we’ve created for ourselves, but it’s hard not to be horrified by the impact our way of life is having on the planet," Francis adds. "Even nominally wild animals now exist within the boundaries of a human-constructed world they didn’t evolve for. Turning back the clock seems impossible, so the only real hope appears to be relying on technological solutions to our problems, but even if that’s in some way successful it feels like the result will be a strange and different world. I was drawn to the idea of creating images of constructed animals by layering together different elements, including skeletons, polygonal structures, empty outlines and garish colours. I wanted to create a sense of facsimile, an idea of a beautiful natural thing that has been lost and replaced with something with a similar form, but distinctly different."
I am reminded of the opening credits of the newest version of "Westworld"on HBO in which we see bison and horses being bio-created in a lab. And I also can't help but flash on a scene from the classic sci-fi film "Blade Runner" where Harrison Ford sees an owl fly in the penthouse apartment of Tyrell. Sean Young comes in and asks him if he likes the owl to which he asks, "Is it artificial?" Her curt answer: "Of course it is."
Exactly how much are we going to lose from climate catastrophe? How many animal species, how many plants species, how many eco systems, how much land, how many humans? These are the questions I ask myself daily, but I still have to make breakfast, I still have to feed my cats, I still have to live here and now. It is creating a cognitive schism for many of us to live with this specter while trying to maintain the momentum necessary for daily life.
Top to bottom: A Crowd Tries To Determine If A Shark Is Real And/Or A Threat; A Girl Waits For A Field Of Tigers To Wake Up; A Group Of People Try To Communicate With A New Artificial Whale; At The Beach, People Try To Get Closer To The Birds; Baobab Tree Collapse; Bird Toys/Predator; Cavalry Advance; Far Into The Desert Two People Encounter The Construction Of A Mammoth; Highway Emergency Telephone Couple; Mechanical Buffalo Journey; Synchronised Ritual Bear Construction
https://www.ifrancis.co.uk/
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
BEAUTY: Painting--Josh Keyes
The mission statement on artist Josh Keyes' website sums up his work succinctly.
"Josh Keyes' style is reminiscent of the diagrammatic vocabulary found in scientific textbook illustrations that often express through a detached and clinical viewpoint an empirical representation of the natural world. Assembled into this virtual stage set are references to contemporary events along with images and themes from his personal mythology. Josh Keyes' work is a hybrid of eco-surrealism and dystopian folktales that express a concern for our time and the Earth's future."
In other words, these are cross-sectional images from the end of the world. Or rather, the end of the world as we know it. We are gone, the animals escape from the zoo, join those in the wild, and all take their rightful place.
Top to bottom: Drifting; Entangle 2; Sirens; Stampede; Tangled I; Tangled III; Tangled IV; Tangled V; The Exchange
http://www.joshkeyes.net/
For the last many months, I have been having a lot of anxiety, strong emotion, and fear of the future and Josh Keyes' work is a visual example of a possible--even probable--future. I am not being facetious when I say that I truly believe the future is going to be a cross between “Water World,” “Mad Max,” and a Margaret Atwood story. Look at every element around you in the world. Now follow it to its logical conclusion. And there you have it.
"Josh Keyes' style is reminiscent of the diagrammatic vocabulary found in scientific textbook illustrations that often express through a detached and clinical viewpoint an empirical representation of the natural world. Assembled into this virtual stage set are references to contemporary events along with images and themes from his personal mythology. Josh Keyes' work is a hybrid of eco-surrealism and dystopian folktales that express a concern for our time and the Earth's future."
In other words, these are cross-sectional images from the end of the world. Or rather, the end of the world as we know it. We are gone, the animals escape from the zoo, join those in the wild, and all take their rightful place.
Top to bottom: Drifting; Entangle 2; Sirens; Stampede; Tangled I; Tangled III; Tangled IV; Tangled V; The Exchange
http://www.joshkeyes.net/
For the last many months, I have been having a lot of anxiety, strong emotion, and fear of the future and Josh Keyes' work is a visual example of a possible--even probable--future. I am not being facetious when I say that I truly believe the future is going to be a cross between “Water World,” “Mad Max,” and a Margaret Atwood story. Look at every element around you in the world. Now follow it to its logical conclusion. And there you have it.
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