Before the End of the World

One of the sculptures part of the installation “To See the Earth Before the End of the World” by Precious Okoyomon, Venice Biennale, Arsenale, 2022.

I’ve recently visited “The Milk of Dreams”, the 59th edition of Venice Art Biennale. Despite the surrealistic dream-like atmosphere the title (inspired by Leonora Carrington) suggests, apocalypse and possible strategies to resist the imminent end of humanity seem to be the topics explored the most by artists, at least in the part of the exhibition I’ve seen at the Arsenale.

Appearing last, one installation in particular grabbed my attention: “To See the Earth Before the End of the World” by Precious Okoyomon. One of the main materials used in this work is kudzu, a vine with the propensity for uncontrollable proliferation, engaging in an invasive approach towards anything standing in its way. Here kudzu is shown as both literally and metaphorically reclaiming the space of the entire planet after human beings have disappeared, their ephemeral and (self)destructive existence replaced by totems or offerings, the sculptures that we see bleeding against the wild growth of green  ̶  water, sugar cane, and of course kudzu itself, eating at the human-like blobs while embracing them in a cosmic dance of resistance and ultimate victory.

What makes this work interesting, in my view, is the use of what the explanatory notes define as “living, growing, decaying and dying materials”, in this case plants, wool yarns, dirt, blood and vines. While warning us about the lethal consequences of constant plundering, depredation, colonization and enslavement (of natural elements as of specific populations and areas of the world), Okoyomon also seems to be highlighting how change and rebirth  ̶  however fleeting they might be while facing the imminent apocalypse and disappearance of all forms of organic life  ̶  are engrained in the very fabric of the Earth, and how resilience and transformation can be the only driving force breaking nature out of the prison human beings have built around it. Maybe the question shouldn’t be: how will we humans be able to survive the mess we have caused in the first place? Because the earth will still be there after we are gone, fighting deterioration and ecstatically leap into rot to become again: open, endless and one with the stars.