June 2018 - Future Currents: San Antonio from 2038 - 2048
This exhibition was inspired by the successful Common Currents exhibitions that showcased San Antonio from 1718 thru 2018.
That 300 year series had 300 artists who exhibited at six different art venues throughout San Antonio in early 2018;
Each artist responding to a particular year in San Antonio's 300 year history.
Future Currents was the artist's opportunity to help create the future of the city of San Antonio.
Each was assigned a future year to express what San Antonio will be like in that year.
That 300 year series had 300 artists who exhibited at six different art venues throughout San Antonio in early 2018;
Each artist responding to a particular year in San Antonio's 300 year history.
Future Currents was the artist's opportunity to help create the future of the city of San Antonio.
Each was assigned a future year to express what San Antonio will be like in that year.
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Jesse Amado: 2038
Fernando Andrade: 2039 John Medina: 2040 Ruth Buentello: 2041 Lauren Mojica: 2042 Bryan Rindfuss: 2043 |
Kelly O'Conner: 2044
Gary Sweeney: 2045 Scott Ball: 2046 Dominique Duff: 2047 Erick Villerral: 2048 |
2038 - Artist Jesse Amado.
It’s near an impossibility to predict the future. Considering the current expediency of life and it’s events, one can only hope for the best. In the year 2038, there will be a full moon on June 16. It’s a moon that I hope all inhabitants of San Antonio will delight in viewing it’s fullness. Unlike our planet which has completely deflated, rendered flat like a leaf about to be whisked away and as we sit to consume our last supper; we can only hope for the best. |
2039 - Artist Fernando Andrade. "Here I am, staring at a travel bus, one that connects passengers between Mexico and the United States. It has been twenty-seven years since abuelita Chela’s passing back in 2012. “Los Autobuses”was her way of traveling across her native land of Mexico and visiting her family here in SanAntonio. I often catch myself reminiscing about her and her smile. I remember the excitement I felt before picking her up at the bus stop downtown, without fail she would always bring a small luggage of clothes and other larger, heavier bags that would be filled with candies, fresh cheese, tortillas, and toys for us. I miss those days, I miss hearing her voice and stories."
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2040 - Artist John Medina. In the year 2040 the ancient aliens that visited our Aztec ancestors have returned. Both fascinated and confused by the evolution of our culture the shapeshifters begin to take on earthly forms in an effort to gain favor with our people. They decide to take on physical characteristics of the things that we worship. You know, our cars and our comida! Lowriders, rice burners, mangonadas and Chile con queso. They are inspired by all these things as they morph into their beautiful new physical forms. The plan backfires, however, when the Southside tribes discover that barbecued alien tastes better than fajitas. Soon H-E-B catches on to the trend and an entire alien species is nearly wiped out by a combo loco.
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2041 - Artist Ruth Buentello. After researching the worlds fair of 1968 in San Antonio I was inspired to reimagine a new future that echoes the pasts intentions to recognize the Latino culture as an asset. The artwork is meant to appear as the postcard / advertisement for the worlds fair reusing its logo and color choices.
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2042 - Artist Lauren Mojica. This year has been particularly hot and humid. The temperature has risen above 100 degrees every day this month, and each hurricane that comes through has been more savage than the last. Getting out of town to escape the storms has been near impossible since we now have nearly 3 million people living in San Antonio. Good thing I have my trusty TrashBrella ™ to protect me from all the extreme weather! It is so important to do our part and buy products that are locally made out of eco-conscious materials!
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2043 - Bryan Rindfuss. In December of 2041, San Antonio was ravaged by Hurricane Harold, the most devastating in a series of increasingly frequent disasters linked to global warming. Already deep in a decade-long recession, the city infamously “did what it could” with limited resources, focusing recovery efforts on a busy stretch of Broadway (encompassing everything from the Witte Museum to the Pearl) that remained under four feet of water for more than a week after the Olmos Dam overflowed. To the chagrin of many, hard-hit Hemisfair Park was largely ignored. Beyond tearing the roof off of the Henry B. González Convention Center and decimating most of the park’s historic structures, Harold blew the windows out of the Tower of the Americas — which had recently turned the lease for its long-failing restaurant over to a satellite lab for a chemical testing facility. Airborne toxic chemicals, storm debris and the consistent threat of Zika rendered the area uninhabitable for nearly all except for a particularly robust feral cat colony. Dubbed “Tower Colony” by animal welfare organizations, the felines generated a fair amount of “disaster tourism” due to physical abnormalities brought on by their unusually high tolerance to radiation poisoning.
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2044 - Artist Kelly O'Conner. Built for HemisFair ’68, the fascinating but forgotten Women’s Pavilion sat empty for nearly 60 years until the HemisFair History Museum (HHM) secure adequate funding to purchase the neglected structure and begin a painstaking restoration project. Established in 2025 and incorporated as a nonprofit the following year, the museum opened its doors 2027 and attracted nostalgics from around the world with its extensive archive of HemisFair collectibles and ephemera. Although attendance tapered off somewhat during the late 2030s, the HHM evolved with changing times, hosting innovative programs and earning national attention for its historical preservation efforts. Still grappling with the wide-spread destruction caused by Hurricane Harold in 2043, San Antonio sustained another wave of disaster caused by an 8.5 magnitude earthquake attributed to rogue fracking in deserted areas of Bexar County. Among the many storied structures that crumbled in the quake’s aftershocks, the HHM was ultimately deemed “unsalvageable.”
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2045 - Artist Gary Sweeney. It's 2045 and all the global chaos and destruction that had been predicted for the last fifty years has come to pass. The only silver lining to the apocalypse is that San Antonio's timeless treasure, Mike Casey, continues to be the coolest living organism on the planet Earth. (Photo of Mike Casey by Joe Dunlop.)
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2046 - Artist Scott Bell. In 2046 San Antonio's population has reached 2.4 million. To put it lightly, things are a little more cramped than they used to be. The open vistas, private dining experiences, and spacious roadways are now a thing of the past. Both locals and newcomers are getting to know each other very well in San Antonio, maybe too well.
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2047 - Artist Dominique Duff. In the third World War there are multiple nuclear war heads being used, leaving half of earth’s surface desolated. Almost expending earth’s recourses, all remaining countries came together with an idea to create a space shuttle that will take all the best of what mankind offer to Mars. Leaving the rest of mankind to defend for themselves here on Earth. With limited amount of resources, many of the people left on earth used scraps of metal to create homemade mask. These masks are used for protection from the sand storm and/or nuclear smog. It is now year 2047 and in San Antonio, just like the rest of the world, there is a big spike of growing local gang members. These local gangs use the limited amount of resources to sell or keep by giving them power and expanding their influence. Gang members are identified by their tattoos on their head. These tattoos identify the ranking and what gang they are affiliated with. As a local 3D artist, it is my dream to create assets for the entertainment industry. This piece was created as a way for me to express my interest in the growth of San Antonio’s entertainment industry as well as show my love of Science Fiction.
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2048 - Artist Erick Villarreal. In the year 2048, San Antonio Robotics (S.A.R) releases its humanoid android Tinatituous X or “Tina X” model for short. This android, along with its more basic and less humanoid previous models, is also used as a home assistant created to make your daily life easier and more efficient. After it was first announced that S.A.R. would be creating a humanoid android, there was backlash from the community over concerns of safety and ethical issues. S.A.R. was required to take some steps to reinvent Tina X in a way that the community would find less controversial. S.A.R decided to incorporate Tina X into a secret reveal show during a large Fiesta event. This image is a still of the moment Tina X is revealed in her Fiesta 2048 show as the fog fades and the light show is beginning. This piece was created as a way for me to express my interest in the growth of the tech or film/entertainment industry in San Antonio. As a 3D Animator, it is my dream to see San Antonio continue to grow and thrive as a hub for future innovators and creators.