In the event of a disaster, let's share in the waste
In the event of a disaster we are urged to be prepared. Urged to have earthquake kits, heed tsunami warnings, and keep reserves of food and water. Urged to have safety protocols and emergency contacts. Urged to have a backup plan, maybe two. Backup everything… just in case. However, just in case seems more certain every day as reality takes on the texture of science fiction.
Hollywood is offering one disaster scenario after another, prophesying the possible apocalypse. Perhaps it will be Yellowstone that will take half the United States when it explodes and then potentially cover the entire globe with volcanic ash, smothering all life. I’m told the West Coast is living on borrowed time. Any day, an earthquake will shear the coast of thousands of miles of land. The image of a shower of people plummeting into the ocean while the landscape around them falls to pieces, isn’t too difficult to conjure thanks to the magic of computer-generated images. There is only so much preparation, only so much fear that can be swallowed before it becomes the essential force that compels our lives. My own reality is being compromised by an elaborate media mechanism whose purpose is to entertain while simultaneously propagating fear.
My idea of a future after the event pierces into a world obscured by smoke, blanketed with detritus, and haunted by ghostly images. An amalgamation of science fiction films, pseudo-documentaries, and reality bleed together forming my own version of the apocalypse. However, within the chaotic and barren land there are inevitable survivors, the last vestiges of society. Inspired by heroines such as Ellen Ripley, Barbarella, and Carrie, these fictive characters survive my worst imaginings.
gouache, charcoal, conte crayon, and dried pigment on paper, 2010
