Ship in a Bottle, pen and ink, 50 x 70 cm, 2017

My work deals with climate change and our uncertain future. It seems to me that this is THE overriding issue of our time. We are monkeys and our world is dying. Like a ship in a bottle our culture sits suspended before our eyes but its function is less clear. This is what we built, but we don't know what it's for ..a curiosity on the shelf. And at a deeper level this is the crisis of culture today: What can we say in the face of species extinction? We were sold a myth of progress in the 20th century that has only led to a neofeudal world dominated by the top .001% of extremely wealthy people. But even with their power they are just stupid apes like the rest of us.

In this talk from 2016 at a conference in London on Edward Said, Naomi Klein does a great job of connecting the dots of the racist foundation of petro-capitalism and the sacrificial areas and cancer clusters foisted on the poor and minorities. I've only listened to the first half, but it's a powerful and important speech. Trump's ascendancy is linked to climate change, we are opting for tribalism and fear of difference instead of facing the problem collectively and that will be our downfall, we are doomed but can we at least extend our survival period a little bit longer, we need more time if we are going to make it and time is running out, it's past time to deal with climate change, but we stick our heads in the sand.

Ship in a Bottle II, pen and ink, 50 x 70 cm, 2017

Yeah it's a total downer, sorry to be so gloomy. Blogging is tricky because everything is connected. In a sense what I am writing is a never-ending scroll of thoughts and themes which all mingle and support each other. In the logic of the spectacle I'm supposed to find my niche and market myself to succeed. And yet Steemit is a closed system, only members can participate, we don't earn SBD for page views so really its less about promotion and more about attracting strong upvotes. Gaming the system is where the money is, but it's not about ideas. Sort of like our current economic model .. everything reflects everything else, but for now I'll stop and hope for at least a few upvotes or comments. As a plankton, ugh, most of my posts which take like an hour to compose just fall to the bottom of the fish tank, or ocean as it were. The ocean is a really big place, it's easy to get lost out here and choke on plastic.

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