In this week's newsletter, art that imagines the end of the world

Hello! You're reading the CBC Arts newsletter, and if you like what you see, stick around! Sign up here, and every Sunday we'll send you a fresh email packed with art, culture and a metric truckload of eye candy, hand-picked by our small and mighty team. Here's what we've been talking about this week.

Hi, art lovers!

Last-minute reminder for you: Creative Minds is this Monday, Dec. 3, and we're streaming the show starting at 8 p.m. ET. Over the last few years, we've partnered with the AGO and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity on these events. It's a live speaker series, one that brings together a bunch of notables — people who are typically working in wildly different cultural disciplines — to have a discussion around some major (broad) topic of the day. This time, the subject is the environment — and the various things we've all done to mess it up. On the panel: Jennifer Baichwal, Brian Jungen, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tanya Talaga. Martha Wainwright is opening things with a musical performance, too. Maybe she'll dedicate this classic to climate change? Only one way to find out.

Here's where to watch it on YouTube, Facebook and CBC Arts.

And if you're in Toronto, you can still grab yourself a ticket. (They're on sale through Koerner Hall's website.)

Monday, the panel should leave you with some constructive thoughts about art's role in saving the planet. Fingers crossed, anyway, because reading the news the last couple months, it sure seems like the end is nigh.

Feel like facing that particular End of Days fear? It's happening whether you like it or not, because this week's grab-bag of links is all about the apocalypse.

Maybe it'll all go out with a bang — a beautiful, neon-coloured bang. Daydream about Day-Glo mushroom clouds, and lose yourself in these photos by Yoshimitsu Umekawa.

Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber have collaborated for more than a decade on incredible, post-apocalyptic scenes like this one from their most recent series, Empire. The sets are all built in miniature, and once you get over the incredible, twisted dollhouse vibes of the work, it might remind you of the precarious moment we're currently living in.

Like that scene from Nix and Gerber's Empire, this short film from a few years ago imagines what New York City would look like if nature fought back...and someone captured the entire evolutionary revolution on video. Watch Wrapped by Roman Kaelin, Falko Paeper and Florian Wittmann.

Or maybe the world will die and we'll all turn into garbage monsters...haunting, elegant garbage monsters. Contemplate the beautiful horror of it all and check out the "V" HS Project, a dystopian photo series by Iceland-based artist Philip Ob Rey.

You've got to see this

To all the rom-coms I've loved before... - Love Actually, Pretty in Pink, My Best Friend's Wedding: Amanda Parris loves them all. But all her faves are problematic, starting with the leading men. In classic rom-coms, the guys never deserve the girl — but they always get her anyway. It's time that Hollywood raised the bar, but until then, Amanda's taking out the trash.

'Madonna, sorry. Michael Jackson, I'm sorry. I did it first.' - 1982. A simpler time, when a pop star grabbing her crotch on live TV was beyond the realm of imagination. That's the year Carole Pope and Rough Trade played the Junos — and managed to get that provocative move past the censors. Watch the clip on the latest episode of From the Vaults. (Heck, watch the entire episode, too. This one features performances from The Who, Lorne Michaels and more.)

'Empire' state of mind - This one's a story about how inspiration can strike at any time. Tall buildings are all over Rafael Sottolichio's most recent paintings, and it's all because he walked past a construction site in Dubai. Skyscrapers have always been a symbol of power, and Rafael's been running with that idea in his latest series, Empire. Follow him around Montreal, and watch him at work in his (high-rise) studio.

Follow this artist

Manuel Galarneau (@manuelgalarneau) - In his day job, this Montreal artist works on concert visuals for the likes of Madonna, Arcade Fire and Childish Gambino, but he's just as excited about making small-scale projects like the video we aired on CBC Arts: Exhibitionists this week. On Instagram, you'll find a preview of Manuel's next personal project. He's developing a CGI sci-fi mockumentary in the vein of Planet Earth.

Got story ideas? Questions? Burning thoughts about what you heard Monday at Creative Minds?

Anytime you want to get in touch, we're around. Hit us up over email, and we'll do our best to get back to you.

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Until then!

XOXO, CBC Arts