apocalypse

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Animation Music

An Eerie Atmosphere Envelops the Post-Apocalyptic Universe of a New Animated Music Video for Woodkid’s ‘Reactor’

Ashy lava oozing over the landscape, flames ripping through piles of mechanical waste, and debris floating through a thick, smokey haze shroud an animated music video for Woodkid in an eerie, post-apocalyptic ambiguity. Directed by Saad Moosajee and produced by Reef Oldberg, “Reactor” descends into a world that’s been marred by an atomic meltdown. Children rise from fiery rubble, and their elegantly choreographed movements appear to control the machinery within the enveloping, dystopian environment.

In “Reactor” and the S16 album more broadly, Woodkid references the chemical properties of sulphur and Japanese classics like Akira and Ghost in The Shell as inspiration, and the animated component takes similar cues. “Our intention was to create something deeply personal that could communicate the feeling of being swallowed by the world around you. About trying to breathe in a place where no one and nothing can breathe anymore,” Moosajee shares in an interview.

Watch the unearthly CG-creation above, and check out Woodkid’s similarly elemental track titled “Iron” from a few years back.

 

Art

Haphazard Safe Havens Rise into the Sky in Simon Laveuve’s Miniature Post-Apocalyptic Islands

Paris-based artist Simon Laveuve (previously) continues to build out his dystopian universe with rickety structures that tower above land and sea. Heavy with dirt and the occasional graffiti tag, the miniature constructions are eerie, disquieting safe havens in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic landscape. Salvaged objects like tires, wooden panels, and lengths of chain support the shelters, which tend to contain tiny outlooks with seating and remnants of provisions. In his most recent mixed-media sculptures like “Le 122,” Laveuve considers lawlessness and what it means to live in an organized society without rule.

The artist has an upcoming show in New York, and you can follow news about that exhibition on Instagram.

 

Art

Eerie Shelters in Miniature Tower Over a Post-Apocalyptic Universe by Simon Laveuve

Tagged with graffiti and pockmarked with decay, the ramshackle structures by Simon Laveuve envision a disquieting safe haven in a post-apocalyptic world. The Paris-based artist (previously) creates miniature shelters on wooden support beams or atop grassy hills that soar high into the air, appearing to offer refuge from below. Constructed as assemblages of worn materials, vintage signs with peeling paint, and a stockpile of everyday objects, the mixed-media sculptures imagine a landscape where only the remnants of life remain. Laveuve writes about his 2021 work “The Island”:

There is the world of yesterday, but today destroyed it to build the world of tomorrow… This is where tomorrow lives, on Resurrection Island. In the heart of the abyss, we find refuges hoisted, like the banner of hope. Perched ever higher, with the secret ambition to reach the dreamy sky, the wandering clouds, and discover freedom.

A few of Laveuve’s vertical environments are included in the upcoming Small Is Beautiful exhibition in London—if you’re able to visit, you’ll also see artists previously featured on Colossal like Vincent Bal and Juho Könkkölä—and he also has a show slated for September in France. Until then, follow Laveuve’s practice on Instagram.

 

Art

Graffiti-Laden Shelters Arise From an Uncanny Post-Apocalyptic Universe Crafted in Miniature

Enveloped by trailing vines and mosses, the dilapidated shelters that Paris-based artist Simon Laveuve crafts appear to emerge from a post-apocalyptic universe as eerie safe-havens. Often elevated aboveground, the miniature buildings feature vertical constructions with various platforms and stairs leading upward. “My pieces, for the most part, have this aspect of shelter… I like to work on the height and the inaccessible. Protection and surrender. Fallen icons and their symbolism. Resistance and insubordination,” the artist says.

Marked with signage and advertisements plastered on the walls, the decaying dioramas showcase an alternate world now abandoned. Graffiti marks the siding, and thick vegetation cradles the remaining environments. Each sculpture displays the destructive qualities of humanity, while ultimately showing the natural world’s ability to survive.

Laveuve’s shelters are featured in Small Scale, Big World: The Culture of Mini Crafts, which is available from Bookshop. Explore more of the uncanny works on the artist’s site and Instagram, where he also shares glimpses into his process.

 

Art Photography

Theatrically Composed Scenes Highlight Human’s Impact on Earth

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison have been a collaborative duo for the last 20 years, mixing Shana’s interest in dance with Robert’s background in photography to produce environments specifically for their combined practice. A constant theme throughout the couple’s two decade long work has been man’s effect on the landscape—showcasing how we are constantly influencing, and more often than not damaging, the Earth.

“We create works in response to the ever-bleakening relationship linking humans, technology, and nature,” says the ParkeHarrison’s artist statement. “These works feature an ambiguous narrative that offers insight into the dilemma posed by science and technology’s failed promise to fix our problems, provide explanations, and furnish certainty pertaining to the human condition. Strange scenes of hybridizing forces, swarming elements, and bleeding overabundance portray Nature unleashed by technology and the human hand.”

Recently the work has reflected the pair’s love of theater and performance, with pieces such as Intermission (2015) and Soliloquy (2015) showcasing stages large and small set inside larger post-apocalyptic scenes. In Riverview (2015) the subject holds a tapestry in front of a rundown carnival, an image of a beautiful river masking what may have paved over its former place. In First of May (2015) the subject listens closely to two megaphones in a hazy field, perhaps searching for wisdom from nature rather than man.

The ParkeHarrison’s exhibition Precipice opens March 11 at Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago and runs through April 30, 2016. You can see more of the couple’s work on the gallery’s website.

Art

Fantastical Paintings of Animals Within Post-Apocalyptic Environments by Martin Wittfooth

Martin Wittfooth transposes the temperament we typically associate with large animals to those much smaller, painting foxes and birds as the heroic victors of this works while making larger animals much more passive and calm. Each of his paintings feature these creatures in environments that deviate from the peaceful surrounding we would expect—trash and decay littering the the ground while smog fills the sky.

“As a species we share a pretty significant degree of similar reactions to the natural world: there are forms in nature that we seem to have innate responses to,” said Wittfooth in an interview with beinArt. “Like a sense of awe or respect for large mammals, and revulsion for spiders and snakes. I’m interested in this kind of shared pattern recognition and instinctive responses. I’m pretty invested in trying to imbue my paintings with some sense of ‘presence’ and hence am working with subject matter that can impart an emotional reading of it, not just a rational (strictly observing) analysis.”

The Brooklyn-based painter’s work is included with 27 other artists fascinated with the wild form in the new book Juxtapoz Wild. You can see more of Wittfooth’s work on his Facebook page here. (via Juxtapoz)