Painting a dystopia and beyond

Sunil Sharma

“In Brueghel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, 
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, 
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.” 

– "Musée des Beaux Arts" By W. H. Auden

How prophetic!

The words of W.H. Auden.

A critique of a post-humanist culture of cold inheritance; the self-centred mindset, an inheritance of a post-industrial society’s atomised existence.

The lack of fellow-feeling.

Signalling the death of idealism and finer values, in a manner of speaking.

This month’s call is also linked to a similar sentiment, a kind of prescient warning, and a cautionary tale about where humanity is mainly headed!

In February, the ongoing dialogue continues with the visionary artist-philosopher Robert Maddox-Harle, the eminent Australian known for his works that decode the civilization, going for dystopia, warts and all.

A stark caveat for those who tend to be listening!

Rob Harle continues to sound the alarm bells for the cynical. 

He is consistently painting and writing about the pitfalls of such a descent into a state of "techno-humanist-surrealism", a stage of development that spells the doom of humanism and liberalism as practised in democracies worldwide---the leitmotifs of parliamentary democracies; the end of the post-Enlightenment project in the Western world, due to the greed of capitalist class and other critical factors like rise of authoritarianism, a deepening climate crisis and emergence of a techno class as the dominant, over-determining modes of perceptions and reality itself.

Rob's android figures are haunting!

Like his paintings, digital and otherwise.

His photographs also capture moments and the eeriness of an absence, so beautifully, in images and words! 

February’s visual supplied by him is no different to this.

"Our Mother is Concerned" is a work that has a brooding quality and it compresses the essence of Rob Harle's humanist concerns so well.

Talking of the motivation, Rob says:

"This is my most recent (and probably my last) digital techno-surrealist artwork. The background shows an antiquated nuclear reactor, next to this a public alert system in case of malfunction or danger. Why? The Mamata, or universal mother, has manifested and with downcast eyes and worried countenance looks on

in grave concern. In the sky is Saturn, the planet representing earthly reality. To the left is the “Death” Tarot card, indicating not so much death but transformation through the end of one phase and the beginning of another. The image is dystopian, and is warning of the long and short term dangers of unsustainable/outmoded human practices."

The responses to this digital artwork are individual interpretations of this disturbing "warning" by an artist with a foresight.

Hope you enjoy the dialogue in the special section.

Other works are equally captivating!

Thanks to dear Rob and all the featured authors and artists for kind support.

Please enjoy!

Sunil Sharma,
Managing Editor, Setu (English)

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Setu, February 2025