2022–2023
Acrylic and pencil on cotton canvas
61 × 146 × 5 cm
RT4A2210
Courtesy of the artist
Foundation began with a remark by a colleague in the art world. The painting sets the Apple TV adaptation (2021–) of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation (1951–1993) beside the private art foundations of the twenty-first century, most of which champion inclusion, technological progress and ecological activism.
Ecology, inclusion, technology: are these shared pursuits not strategies to preserve the Earth’s species, as psychohistory is a tool of preservation in Asimov’s saga? Do they not lay the ground for life on another planet, like Asimov’s plan to move a scientific elite to a remote planet to save a galaxy from barbarism (a questionable goal)? Do foundations help and support our present, or do they shape our future, perhaps replacing the wishes of artists, individuals and organisations with a single vision of the Earth steered by wealth and dominance? In the end, are these foundations not the opposite of Asimov’s Foundation, a story of David against Goliath that romanticises a universe saved by collective effort rather than by a sprawling empire?
