Nach uns 2, paper maché, plaster, collage

Nach uns

Humanity, look closely at yourself. Within you are heaven and earth and all of creation. You are a world – everything is hidden within you. (Hildegard von Bingen)

We think we are the masters of the world. We stand on the edge of the abyss, shouting senseless commands into it. But our bodies know better. They are not fooled. They get sick and feel the pain we inflict on nature. The fact is: Nature is fine without us; it will survive the droughts, the floods, and the pandemics. But what about us?
A few days without people, and nature begins to reclaim the city. If the pumps lose power, the subway shafts flood, the temperature in the buildings is no longer controlled, the windows burst, and if the expansion joints in the bridges are left untreated, the ice cracks them open. The collaged sculptures were created for my collage residency Berlinage #2 with the theme Imaginary city. While Nach uns 1 documents the decay, Nach uns 2 poses the question of whether the creatures that will colonize the city after us might transform it into a more beautiful place.

digital collage