WBO 1
"WATER, BLOOD, & OIL" flag series
Exhibited as part of the Weekend Celebration of Creativity Derby 2024 Programme
Friday 18 - Saturday 19 October: 10:00 - 16:00
St Peter's Church, 10 St Peter's Churchyard, Derby DE1 1NN
"Water, Blood, & Oil" emerges as a series of flags, each bearing the imprint of droplets—symbols mapping the catastrophes of liquidity and scarcity. This work delves into the visceral interstices where geopolitical and environmental collapse coalesce into the structures of fascism. At its core, the series examines the assertion posited by the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources that, come 2040, pivotal river systems could cease to flow. This stark prognosis casts a long shadow over the futures of Syria, Iraq, and significant expanses of Iran, presaging a scenario where these lands might become uninhabitable deserts.
As water recedes, leaving behind the vestiges of civilizations too parched to sustain themselves, massive waves of migration are envisioned—westward movements propelled not only by necessity but also by the gravitational pull of cultural hegemony that the West continues to exert. Within this exodus lies the kernel of fascism’s response: a cold, calculated imposition of racial hierarchies aimed at governing the distribution of diminishing resources. Herein, the artwork suggests, fascism reveals both its logic and its barbarity—proposing a 'solution' that does nothing to address the underlying crises but merely manages their most immediate and brutal consequences.
This scenario transcends the dystopian visions of "Children of Men," entering the desolate realms of "Mad Max" where survival dictates ethics and humanity is stripped to its most primal urges. Yet, the work argues, fascism fails to comprehend that its arithmetic of oppression—this simplistic equation of ‘two plus two’—is fundamentally flawed. Addressing only symptoms, the system is blind to the cause: a relentless depletion that continues to erode any semblance of stability. As resources thin, so too does the façade of this racial hierarchy, necessitating ever more stringent selections that further fracture along the lines of class, geography, and beyond.
In a poignant anecdotal reflection interwoven with this narrative, I recall a 2016 lecture by Dr Bahram Beyzaie at Stanford, where Beyzaie shared a childhood memory. Passing through a desert town stricken by chronic famine and years of drought, he witnessed farmers conducting a funeral for Allah—a profound act of defiance or despair that transcends blasphemy. In Islam, where God is conceived without dimension or physical form, the notion of divine death ventures into the realm of the unthinkable. It is this act of 'thinking the unthinkable' that the artwork seizes upon—a metaphor for confronting crises so severe that they rupture the very fabric of conceivable reality.
The installation itself suggests that these flags have been sent back from a future moment as dire warnings. Each flag, a relic in this speculative archaeological site, beckons viewers to discern the urgent messages embedded within their folds. The exhibition space transforms into a futuristic archaeological site, where these artifacts of a forewarned dystopia prompt a critical examination of our current trajectories. Here, "Water, Blood, & Oil" not only portrays a world strained past its limits but also challenges us to envisage responses that go beyond the cyclical failures of historical solutions, urging a reimagining of the very paradigms we live by. This serves as both a premonition and a call to action, placing the onus on us to avert such a desolate future.
