State of Denial

State of Denial is the title of this triptych in which each part also has its own title. The first painting is called ‘Speel met mij niet met mijn toekomst’ (Play with me not with my future), the second painting’s title ‘Grownup’ leaders are pushing us towards catastrophe, says former US climate chief’ and the third painting is called ‘Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind’.

In november 2023 I was present at the national climate march, according to Dutch media the largest one ever with more than 85.000 participants, and it’s there that I saw a little girl with a protest sign which read ‘speel met mij niet met mijn toekomst’. To me it was incredibly moving to see despair embodied in this girl. It triggered my fear for her and her/our future children, fear of losing this magical, wonderful, multiform, beautiful world we share.  And it made me so angry at the obstruction of grownups in politics and corporate multinationals, their enablers, while 89% of the public want their governments to do more to tackle the climate crisis.

Georgi Gospodinovs’ book Time Shelter which addresses the part ‘nostalgia’ plays in performative populist politics is a major source for the second painting. As are the signals of climate breakdown like the floods in Germany in 2024 and the reports on the behind-the -scenes preparation for Trump 2.0 by the Heritage Foundation for the third painting.