Back in March we did a show called A Brief History of the Future at The Hillman City Collaboratory, aka the dopest space in the world. The Collaboratory is a multi-use complex that provides co-working space, art events, yoga, a community kitchen and garden, educational outreach programs, space for non-profits, and like, 86 billion other awesome things in Hillman City, which is the nugget of neighborhood that’s just south of Columbia City. I didn’t know anything about the neighborhood or the Collaboratory when we signed on to be the featured artists for March…but man, oh man both are real cool. I was blown away at how cool and excited everyone who was involved with the space seemed to be. Passion for making the world more wonderful, for making our city more wonderful. It’s easy to get discouraged, with all the fancy gallery vibes and tech $$$ / aesthetic all over the place. The Collaboratory is focused on all of the good stuff – giving people access to gardening, aka the most spiritual hobby of all, making space for artists on the outside, providing facilities doing work for the community…rad things all around.
We had total freedom to do our thing in regards to concept, which was dizzying and humbling and the best. Thematically, we continued working in the areas we’ve been interested in for awhile. The future, fantasy, collective consciousness. Here, we wanted to show lots of small pieces, with the intention to overwhelm. The two of us have pretty different aesthetics, and we wanted to push that and make it a narrative, so it would feel like dozens of voices were talking to you at once.
This is some stuff I wrote about it.
IN THE FUTURE.
In the future, all matter will degrade
into simple geometric forms.
In the future, everything will be made all
rickety and shitty because the only thing
people will know about is marketing, but
eventually, new generations will re-learn
how to use their hands and they will make
a bunch more objects and cause the
apocalypse again.
In the future, we will not live on Mars
because it’s too expensive, and we
barely have our shit together now.
In the future, no one will be famous for 15
minutes because we won’t bother keeping
track of time that closely.
In the future, there will be no aesthetic
associated with particular eras, cultures,
or places. It’ll all be a big pile of crunched
up papers and half-used matchbooks.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FUTURE.
is a collection of hypothetical snapshots of where we think It is going. Whatever It may be. These snapshots contradict, overlap, collide, overwhelm. Specimens from future creatures are treated like they are already extinct. Portraits and artifacts document what hasn’t yet happened. Birds represent ideas; ideas that have wanderlust, that escape from an individual’s skull if they feel like their chances of fruition are nil. These ideas make pilgrimages to new places, where they might be enacted. Because like us, ideas want to actualize, mature, and experience fresh, raw, beautiful futures.
When we talk about the future, we’re really talking about now. About how now is going to gestate, about how now is going to grow, mature, degrade, warp, mutate, and, hopefully, thrive.
