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 Apocalyptic Art


'This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper." T.S Eliot

For centuries, artists and creatives alike have depicted the Apocalypse, which is the fantastical, unimaginable end of the world and all life on it.  At some point it is going to happen, maybe about 5 million years away when the sun burns out, so perhaps it is this truth that has artists thinking of what this end may look like.  Since it will happen, down the track.

Recently it has felt like humanity was in the midst of it with the advent of Covid, but also with the devastation that climate change has been and is inflicting on the land and people globally.  It is very easy to start to think of the end, grim as that may sound.

When I had created yesterday's art piece, even though I wasn't happy with the art work, I was very much intrigued by the colours in the background which reminded me of an apocalyptic feel, vibe.  So today's challenge I set myself the task of creating an art piece that may illustrate that to some extent.

I have to add that the art works are created very quickly and are rough, but what I am liking is the fact that other ideas are able to be generated from these pieces.  Ideas that will develop into more substantiative works.

In this case, Apocalyptic Feel, May 26, 2023. Ink on paper. I wanted to incorporate the warm colours of reds, oranges, pinks, purples and a splash of yellow for the sun.  These powerful colours embody the end, and quite apt too for Climate Change.  I wanted to show the loneliness of such an event, and this is created by having the half destroyed shed on the left hand side of the art work, balanced by the skeleton of a tree on the right hand side.  Both of these are coloured in purple so that a continuity is created between the two.  I hope that the eye can travel from left to right, or right to left and be guided by the colour purple.

The setting is bare and evidently there is no movement, no wind or animals or people.  Desolation.

Is the fascination with the apocalypse in art because it could be a reality with one mutation of a virus, just like that, or a nuclear accident or meteor crashing on earth?  I suspect the frailty and vulnerability of humans is what the artists are really exploring.

Definitely something to further think about and explore.


Stella Grammenos-Dimadis



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