As we get settled into 2024 after the onslaught of global conflict, pandemic fluctuations and the unique brand of Futurism or dystopia that we live every day, many artists pro- vide a balm for this time. Appropriated from ‘Eco-Mysticism for Apocalyptic Times,’ a blog about an enchanted and care- based approach to seeing and understanding the environ- ment around us, art for apocalyptic times recontextualizes and repositions art as a beacon that brings us together during hardship, contains answers for some of our deepest questions and provides a source of respite. Here’s a list of artists that speak to the current moment, reflect dreams and nightmares, and envision a better world.
CURTIS “CURTISTIC” WILLIAMS
Williams builds a world of possibilities for Black people to thrive through intergalactic connections, dinosaurs, hiero-
glyphics and more. He’s interested in dystopianism, sci-fi, superheroes and anime, which he calls a form of a “documentary.” There’s something within all these narrative styles and fiction that holds truth. He cites many moments in history that signal world-building and our many unanswered questions through creativity: the pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge and great mounds found throughout the Americas by Indigenous people. His work exists on the edge of prediction and conspiracy where there’s a swath of material for creative imagining. thecurtistic.wixsite.com/curtistic
BEKKA TEERLINK
Teerlink’s ethereal paintings capture what she calls “magical realism from the broken world around her.” With a dose of surrealism, escapism and fluorescent colors, she paints a world full of questions rather than answers. Her cinematic, poetic and daydreaming-like way of looking, reminds me of how we intake the news cycle, every moment of our daily experiences and process intangible feelings through bursts of color in a sort of
synesthesia. While there’s warmth, there’s also an unnamable dissonance between objects, space, place and people. She writes, “My work is always conscious of being an individual living within the context of a pandemic, climate crisis, racial injustice and political instability — and there is always an element of using art as a way to process what is happening.” It articulates this question: What happens when the home, as you know it, becomes a distant memory? bekkateerlink.com
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