Apocalypse
Moving forward with my project I am returning to the landscape in its dramatic form, looking at the negative sublime and apocalyptic imagery. My dissertation theme is placed with in the historical notion of the gothic landscape and its reinterpretation into contemporary art, looking at the hyper-real. My studies will be centered in Apocalyptic landscape and I will be looking at literature, film, photography and painting. The following artists create fantastical, post apocalyptic, and fear invoking environments, covering a range of mediums.
Emily Nelligan American Draughtsman, born 1924
Each drawing is a testimony of what she breathed that day.
I love the atmospheric style of Emily Nelligan's drawings, the minimal detail and vast tonal range creates deep and turbulent landscapes. The sense of scale is dependent on the viewers imagination as there is nothing to compare it too, however the depth created tonally gives me the impression of a huge void and therefore creates a negative sublime - the notion of the last days, the end even.
Adam Hancher's illustration style lends itself to the idea of fantastical make believe lands with a negative twist. I love the limited palette that adds to the gloomy dystopia, the tree stumps litter the foreground as the rain pours down.
Hisaharu Motoda's Neo Ruins
A series of lithographs depicting the cityscape of a post apocalyptic tokyo. The graphic quality of this work is what has drawn me in, The fine detail adds to the chaos and turmoil, yet the emptiness allows the eye freedom to roam over the destruction peacefully and quietly. The antique look of the lithographic medium effectively amps up the eeriness of the futuristic setting. "In Neo-Ruins I wanted to capture both a sense of the world's past and of the world's future," says Motoda on his website.
Goya El Coloso
This image was described by Baudelaire as 'giving the monstrosity the ring of truth'.