Last Vacation Before the End of the World
Part 1 - June 14, 2017 (and ongoing)
Part 2 - TBD
photo by Gretchen Henke
Part 1:
In a world where nuclear superpowers try to top each other with each new test, a world where the Cold War seems like it never ended as proxy wars continue to spring up around the globe, what happens when the tests are over and a nuclear bomb is dropped on a city for the first time in over 70 years?
Kelley A Meister wants you to think about the end of the world.* Where will you go when the bombs fall? What songs will you serenade it with? What will you bring with you when you leave your home? Who will go with you? As a companion to the premiere of Kelley’s hand-drawn animation on living in the nuclear age “Now I am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds,” ze would like to invite you to accompany hir on our last vacation before the end of the world. Part Doomsday Preppers, part apocalyptic karaoke, this show asks the audience to step inside a fallout shelter and imagine what we might need to get through this.
Kelley’s work is an exploration of life during the Anthropocene, our current geologic epoch named for human impact on the environment. Hir body of work employs the use of drawings, video, and performance to investigate this moment where the planet is shifted by the indelible touch of humans. Despair and hopeful naïveté intermingle ambivalently throughout the work. The artist is interested in feelings of insignificance resulting from the ways in which we tackle seemingly insurmountable tasks or issues, as well as the surge of possibility that comes from accomplishment or winning. To this end, ze mines the whole process of creating the work for moments that bring those feelings to the surface. Kelley emphasizes the complex, evolving uncertainty that comes from our collective struggle to mitigate the damage the Anthropocene has already set in motion. By probing our feelings of insignificance, ze draws attention to our compromised society.
Join Kelley for hir multimedia participatory experience Last Vacation Before the End of the World, Part 1. Come together and prepare for the worst as we imagine the possibility of a future we hope never comes.
Kelley A Meister is a fiscal year 2016 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. “Now I am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds” is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
*world as in, as we know it, an anthro-centric view, to say the least
In a world where nuclear superpowers try to top each other with each new test, a world where the Cold War seems like it never ended as proxy wars continue to spring up around the globe, what happens when the tests are over and a nuclear bomb is dropped on a city for the first time in over 70 years?
Kelley A Meister wants you to think about the end of the world.* Where will you go when the bombs fall? What songs will you serenade it with? What will you bring with you when you leave your home? Who will go with you? As a companion to the premiere of Kelley’s hand-drawn animation on living in the nuclear age “Now I am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds,” ze would like to invite you to accompany hir on our last vacation before the end of the world. Part Doomsday Preppers, part apocalyptic karaoke, this show asks the audience to step inside a fallout shelter and imagine what we might need to get through this.
Kelley’s work is an exploration of life during the Anthropocene, our current geologic epoch named for human impact on the environment. Hir body of work employs the use of drawings, video, and performance to investigate this moment where the planet is shifted by the indelible touch of humans. Despair and hopeful naïveté intermingle ambivalently throughout the work. The artist is interested in feelings of insignificance resulting from the ways in which we tackle seemingly insurmountable tasks or issues, as well as the surge of possibility that comes from accomplishment or winning. To this end, ze mines the whole process of creating the work for moments that bring those feelings to the surface. Kelley emphasizes the complex, evolving uncertainty that comes from our collective struggle to mitigate the damage the Anthropocene has already set in motion. By probing our feelings of insignificance, ze draws attention to our compromised society.
Join Kelley for hir multimedia participatory experience Last Vacation Before the End of the World, Part 1. Come together and prepare for the worst as we imagine the possibility of a future we hope never comes.
Kelley A Meister is a fiscal year 2016 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. “Now I am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds” is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
*world as in, as we know it, an anthro-centric view, to say the least
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