rotterdam photo 2024: imagine
future paradise & apocalypse dreams
Future Paradise & Apocalypse Dreams is an ongoing photo-collage and photo-manipulation project, which explores visual imagination, memories and dreams with a utopic/apocalyptic lens.
in this project i mix a broad range of locations and settings together to mimic the mind’s natural pattern of blending and altering visual memories when dreaming. The result is a series of “dreamed landscapes”: surreal artworks created out of shots taken over the last seven years on 35mm. By using exclusively my own photos the project functions as a personal exploration into visual memory, while scientific understandings of imagination and dreams remain limited.
Sky Embankment (2021-2024)
Starlings by the Steel Eel (2021-2024)
BoomAmerica (2021-2023)
Party Summit Hill (2022)
Each artwork may feature a combination of three broad themes i have created.
dream logic
paradises from the future
apocalypse dreams
there will be elements of each theme for these artworks, but they usually have a specific emphasis:the first of these three themes, 'Dream Logic', takes inspiration from how the sleeping mind will recreate different settings from memories, mixing the look of one place with the feelings of another, but refashions them in unreal yet convincing ways.
The Next Stop is Vegas (2021-2024)
Sandy Headfuck (2021)
Albanian Bliss (2022)
English Green (2023)
The Brighton Blues (2020-2021)
Tribute to East Slope (2023)
the second theme, 'Paradises From the Future' is a utopic imagining of the world, blending positive aspects of civilisation with the grand serenity of nature, hinting at post-apocalyptic paradise. These pieces try to foster an optimistic outlook on humanity's coexistence in living on the Earth and beyond, and reflect the carnivalesque nature of dreams.
Cloud Ocean Lagoon (2023)
Long Way Down (2020-2023)
Paradise Valley (2022)
Future Promenade (2021-2023)
The London of Tomorrow (2022-2024)
Haggerston Fairgrounds (2022)
Into the Blue (2022)
'Apocalypse Dreams' is informed by the suggestion that: if the end of the world came, it would probably look pretty. some of These are the most abstract of the artworks in the project, and emphasise togetherness and beauty in the face of destruction.
In reality, dreams can be far darker, more confusing and unrecollectable. To some extents, the project is an attempt to bridge the gap of our limitations surrounding our knowledge of dreams. By copying the process of visual memory, i hope to offer some sense on the mystery of dreams and imagination, whilst the science for this remains as a frontier.
buy prints here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/WillVickersArt
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Will Vickers is a photographer, video editor, designer and visual artist based between Bristol and Brighton, England.
The core of his visual art practice is a synthesis of analogue and digital techniques - creating surreal and abstract collages from digitally morphed 35mm scans.
Will has created cover art, poster art and music visualisers for a variety of music artists and creative labels. He also photographs musical events. In addition, he has provided video editing and animation work for a variety of large brands in the automotive, tech, sports and financial spheres.
Thank you!
