March 2021
One year ago the closing reception to Future Tense was cancelled due to COVID-19. In the spirit of giving the exhibit another chance to be seen and celebrated, please join the virtual closing reception for Future Tense on March 30th, 2021 at Noon PST. All of the artwork as it was presented in the exhibition will be minted as NFTs and made available via Open Sea. Anyone collecting an NFT from the exhibition will also receive the physical corresponding artwork.
View the virtual exhibition
View the NFTs
What follows is a draft of an announcement that was written this time last year, which has not been distributed until now. I think it still captures the spirit of this moment, and yet is a reflection of how much has changed in the last year.
March 30th 2020
You’re invited to a closing reception for my first solo show, Future Tense, but of course the reception has been canceled. Living through a global pandemic while exhibiting art about our uncertain future and the end of the world has been especially surreal for me.
All of the artwork in the show is about time, existential threats and opportunities, my anxieties around our conflicting narratives of the future, and the inner light of hope we can cultivate to burn through the darkness of despair. We’re somehow collectively racing towards both technological salvation and utter destruction.
But these concerns have been thrown off the table, time has been distorted. Next week feels like a month from now, next year feels like a decade from now, and every day I just want the world to wake up from this bad dream.
We seem to only speculate about the future in extreme dualities. In the next 40 years either we merge with AI and become gods that explore the cosmos, or the ecosystem collapses and we all go extinct. The president wants to re-open the country by Easter and epidemiologists expect millions of fatalities. The truth may be the middle path, somewhere between unbounded optimism and the worst case scenario.
It’s important we find that middle path and get balanced. We should 'beware' in the sense of 'being aware', get prepared but don't panic, take this seriously but don’t let it break your spirit. The future is tense and uncertain, but we can't let the fear of what may happen take away the kindness we all have to offer one another.
Thank you for all of the support and feedback during the run of the exhibition.
May we all be in good health, and in good spirits in the coming months.
- Sterling
"False Flag is proud to present Future Tense – an exhibition of recent work by Sterling Crispin.
Crispin runs up against the edge of humanity – or at least humanity as we presently perceive it. His creations mine the artifacts and reconfigured detritus of larger technological systems. Some already exist, while others are likely to exist in the near future: emotional robotics, computational engineering, behemoth venture-capital firms, and server farms.
Future Tense considers humanity's collective, unclear conclusion, portraying an apocalypse that never seems to arrive. We have birthed both technological miracles and existential threats: alongside the Green Revolution and the Information Age have come climate change and runaway inequality. Crispin’s work embodies this paradox of technological advancement – which simultaneously enables both improvement and destruction."
Hope
Thermoplastic print on aluminum, aluminum framing
62 x 30 x 36 inches
2020
Hope references duality of hope and despair, and the process of cultivating our higher selves, while resisting the inevitable and unrelenting hardships that life brings. Sometimes we're pulled towards both hope and despair at once, and have to find the fortitude to continue.
Recovery
Thermoplastic print on aluminum, aluminum framing
62 x 30 x 0.25 inches
2020
Transcendence
Thermoplastic print on aluminum, aluminum framing
62 x 30 x 0.25 inches
2020
A002 (Third Nature)
Anodized aluminum
5 x 5 x 3.5 inches
2020
Traditionally creating ikebana arrangements is a symbolic and spiritual practice that can cultivate self understanding, and call forth the spirits of nature into one's home. Humanity and nature are brought together in harmony under heaven, earth, and the universe. Here a third nature, technology as a global organism, is in a triad with humanity and nature, demanding that we contemplate it within a spiritual and ontological context.
A001 (Third Nature)
Anodized aluminum
7 x 9.5 x 3 inches
2020
A004 (Third Nature)
Anodized aluminum
6 x 6 x 2.7 inches
2020
A003 (Third Nature)
Anodized aluminum
9.5 x 5 x 1.6 inches
2020
Dont Panic
Brass, leather, nylon
4 x 3.4 x 2 inches
2018
I'm interested in the way that this piece acts as a voice for our "right now" of time, but also a voice for the "long now" of time. Because human extinction through nuclear war or climate collapse may be imminent, it is both a looming event in the current moment as well as a perpetual-scale event, as human extinction would last until the end of time were it to happen.
20XX
Brass, nylon
2.3 x 2.6 x 0.4 inches
2018
No Fate
Steel, bronze, nylon
5.9 x 0.4 x 4.7 inches
2019
Collective Deceleration to Nature
Aluminum, nylon, wax, steel, bronze, gold
34 x 14 x 10 inches
2020
This piece is one of three fire extinguisher candelabras which reference two dualities: 'collectivism vs authoritarianism' and 'acceleration of technology vs deceleration to nature'.
These opposing dualities when considered together form a conceptual two-axis graph one can use to understand the position of individuals and large cultural forces, and their relationships to one another. I see these dualities as fundamental forces shaping the world and how they find balance with one another will be the story of the 21st century.
Collective Acceleration of Technology
Aluminum, nylon, wax, steel, bronze, gold
37 x 11 x 11 inches
2020
Authoritarian Deceleration to Nature
Steel, nylon, wax, steel, bronze, gold
20 x 8 x 7.5 inches
2020
"Far from hopeless, these works are ecstatic. Or perhaps they’re in a place beyond hope, inhabiting a state of only speed and collision as humanity either dies off or transcends itself. If we are to endure, we need more than just technology: our survival requires a new vocabulary, one towards which Crispin moves."
This sculpture is a kind of phurba, a buddhist ritual object with a fierce, wrathful, piercing energy used to signify stability, which is used to kill demons and ignorance within ceremonial practices. The handle references a vajra, a ritual object symbolizing a diamond, indestructibility, a thunderbolt, irresistible force, the nature of reality, and enlightenment.
These symbols combined with the phrase "The Inherent Dignity of Every Person" is meant to evoke a kind of unstoppable, unquestionable compassion and strengthened bond between all people. It represents a ritual object to vanquish those who might question the inherent dignity of every person, while also acting as a literal weapon which could be used in an emergency if such a person were to threaten your safety.
Inherent Dignity
Electroplated carbon steel, steel, bronze, gold, cotton, wood
45 x 5 x 5 inches
2020
Escape Vehicle 001
Foam, resin, fiberglass, aluminum, neoprene
72 x 24 x 6 inches
2020
Escape Vehicle 001 is an escape vehicle for the apocalypse, both the positive transcendent apocalypse, and the doomsday, end of the world apocalypse. The idea originated from a sketch of a dirtbike I did, covered in canisters of extra fuel, survival tools, and covered in ornate gold floral patterns and bold graphics. I started thinking about other more impractical escape vehicles and I loved the idea of more of an existential escape vehicle, something you could use to surf the chaos of the world and experience transcendence with.
Softbank 30-300 Visions
Print on aluminum, aluminum profiling
37 x 60 inches
2020
The imagery and text in this work is largely sourced from an internal SoftBank presentation about their vision for the future. Softbank's Vision Fund is arguably the dominant VC investment fund and is the world's largest tech investor at 100B$+. Their strategy is to "create platforms between demand and producers, take over 80%+ of the market, then dynamically price everything for profit".
Nearly all of the text and imagery is directly from their vision presentation, superimposed on itself to highlight the manic optimism, perplexing contradictions, and frightening mortal threats and consequences of our world. It's a view into how a multibillion dollar global corporation processes existentialism and imagines a future closer to the singularity.
Extinction
Cotton, nylon, plastic
60 x 60 inches
2020
