Damian Siqueiros is fighting a dystopian future with photographs that are full of hope
'Everywhere you look, everything that you see is dystopian; it's negative'
When you see Terra Sapiens, the new series by multimedia Montreal artist Damian Siqueiros, you'll see visions of a pristine earth populated by dreamlike people surrounded by foliage, mist and clouds. What does it all mean? To Siqueiros, Terra Sapiens is an antidote to the wide variety of dystopian images we see in contemporary culture. What he is presenting is an alternative.
Siqueiros says, "Positive representation of the future is one of the most relevant topics right now because everywhere you look, everything that you see is dystopian; it's negative. So we need to be informed about these initiatives that are already happening that are based in science, that are a reality, that are helping the environment. We need to see those things to be inspired to activate hope and get there."
Watch the video:
In this video made by filmmaker Louis-Martin Charest, you'll go inside Siqueiros's studio as he creates pieces of Terra Sapiens, which is the next step in his career that's been marked by what he calls "artivism" — an activist spirit that drives his work that previously dealt with cultural and gender identity.
The subjects you'll see participating in Terra Sapiens — produced in partnership with Lembasworks — include Claudia Chan Tak, Mariette Raina, Hamilton Nieh, Alisia Pobega, Alice Tran, Sanghun Lee, Sabina Son Soon, Vanesa Garcia Montoya, Jungmin Seo, Kiara Felder, Diana Leon and Paco Ziel. The music in Terra Sapiens was composed by Tara Baswani and Moses Baxter.
Find out more about Damian Siqueiros here. Siqueiros is currently working on Terra Sapiens: Environments of Regeneration.
See more from the series:
Stream CBC Arts: Exhibitionists or catch it on CBC Television Friday nights at 11:30pm (12am NT) and Sundays at 3:30pm (4pm NT). Watch more videos here.
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