Are we heading for a dystopian or utopian world in 2070? No doubt, given what we have been experiencing recently, whether it be cataclysmic natural events like bushfires or world-wide pandemics, most people would bet on a dystopian future.
We have asked artists and writers to imagine possible future scenarios. Will the only place suitable for habitation be the polar regions of the earth? How will we survive the toxins and pandemics? What kind of natural materials are left with which to provide multi-use and multi-sensory experiences? How will we store our data and maintain our seed banks? Will we live in a totalitarian society without nature or live in a beautiful space of meditation?
7 artists with 2 working in collaboration have created 6 works that respond to fiction sourced from the earliest Russian dystopian novel and J. G. Ballard to recent short stories by writers who are members of the group Aussie Speculative fiction.
The artists explore easily transportable and accessible diamond storage technology where a single diamond can store the entire history of art, or technology that is worn like a piece of jewellery on the chest that when activated creates a protective bubble around the wearer. With the loss of manufactured products from oil and minerals, bio-material such as seaweed, kelp and macroalgae is explored for use as an edible water carrier and filter that doubles as a musical instrument and data storage unit. Other artists explore bio energy, chloroplasts and engineered nutrition via small seed reliquaries concealed in clothing or worn as a bio headpiece. If the body is not carrying or wearing an item of use then there is the swing, an immersive and mediative space designed for downtime in the workplace.
Dystopia/Utopia 2070 is an exhibition designed to stimulate discussion about our future, to emphasize that the arts in conjunction with science are at the forefront of our survival, and to question what we take for granted. Will the galleries that we use today to exhibit artwork even be of relevance or exist in fifty years? To this end the exhibition experience will not merely be a collection of artworks within the white cube but an overall experience that challenges our senses and modes of perception.
Artists: Russell Anderson and Rebecca Ward, Christine Atkins, Charlotte Haywood, Susan Lincoln, Archie Moore and Clare Poppi.
Curator: Kevin Wilson
Image: Clare Poppi, Bio-headpiece, 2021, 925 Silver, Copper, Glass, Live Plants. Photography by Michelle Bowden
