Abstract
A society in terminal velocity, a fish that escapes the river’s flow. Apocalypse as a change engine. A gaze into possible futures both positive and negative. -CJ
Artist Statement
The three pieces I have completed over the course of my thesis semester started as an inquiry into possible outcomes for the future, using the Many Worlds theory of quantum mechanics. The Many Worlds theory of Quantum Mechanics is a theory that attempts to describe reality as a superposition of infinite possible futures that split each time an action occurs. In one world the action occurs, in another world the action does not occur. Using this idea as a basis, I have explored possible utopian, dystopian and ambiguous or neutral futures that could result from our present reality. I wanted to visualize a future stemming from our present reality, a time where it is very difficult to envision any future at all for humanity, and therefore any future may be equally likely as any other.
Taking three artists from the past and using their works as a framework to show how certain paths of action play out, I used Francisco Goya’s Third of May of 1808, Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Harvesters, and a panel from Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo. I also used two visual metaphors in each piece, the black swan, and the fish that jumps out of water. A black swan event is a financial term coined by mathematician Nassim Nicholas Taleb to describe an event that is unpredictable, disastrous, or otherwise justified in hindsight. The other metaphor requires us to imagine time as a river, and humanity as the fish jumping out of it. We cannot change the flow of the water, or where the flow will take us, but we can escape it for a brief moment. I use these twin animal avatars as a visual language in my paintings, telling the story in two ways. I was inspired to do this by Bruegel, who frequently used visual metaphors and sayings in his work, such as in Netherlandish Proverbs.