Schism (or the hyperreality of labour), 60 x 48 Inches, Acrylic and Gouache on Panel

Fractured Utopia weaves a compelling and foreboding narrative of what happened in our world, offering hindsight to the visitor’s perspective. Looking back on the artworks, current issues are highlighted in the works’ themes of alienation, ecological destruction, and the inevitable decay of current civilization. Responding to these implications with paintings, drawings, video, and didactic guidance, Fractured Utopia involves the visitor within a vortex of present and imagined futures, filled with questions: how did we get here, how can we change, and what might the future bring? 

Many classic science fictions are dated in years that have now passed us by, and like a wheel spinning our own fate, it is these classic tales that cross boundaries of spacetime, giving shape to the aesthetic and technological trends of what we perceive as “the future”. Confronted by imagined futures arriving into our present moments, we are forced to grapple with immediacy. We can no longer procrastinate with surreal perceptions of waiting. The consequences of climate change and contagious virus spread are imminent while technological developments invite us into virtual, augmented and holographic realities.

- Catalogue Excerpt by Miriam Arbus