Reflections On

An Age Of

Anxiety

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Reflections on the Anxieties, Challenges and Difficulties of Our Times.

“Not Just Collateral” (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. Not Just Collateral is a Digital Collage which picks among the rubble of repeated airstrikes on residential areas. From the very first intentional bombing of a civilian population at Guernica in 1937 during the Spanish Civil war, through the London Blitz, Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and on to the modern day use of Predator Drones and Precision Guided Munitions in Africa and the Middle East; Innocent people on the ground have been wounded and killed in the destruction wrought by powerful Nation States competing for resources and influence. Collateral Damage is the De-Humanizing euphemism used by military forces to create an emotional distance from the fact that it is Human lives and not just material property which are being destroyed by these acts of aggression. They are Not Just Collateral… They are Human…

"All Hail Our Robot Overlords" (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. All Hail Our Robot Overlords is a Digital Collage which attempts to evade the kill-lists and targeting computers of the highly advanced and increasingly automated robotic weapons which are becoming commonplace on the modern battlefield. In parts of the world right now Predator Drones are loitering above populated areas armed with powerful Hellfire Missiles. They are remote controlled by pilots safely sitting in shipping containers, continents away, observing the people below through a bank of targeting screens connected to a high resolution camera.

That said, there is a current drive in Military technological research to fully automate the process of killing, this will remove the human factor altogether and leave complex tactical and ethical decisions up to basic computer programming, whilst banishing the issue of accountability to a legal and moral grey area. We live in a time where a Campaign To Stop Killer Robots truly exists. This organisations aim is to get governments to commit to a ban on autonomous weapons before they become a reality, as once they come into use it will be almost impossible to go back.

"All Dried Up" (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. All Dried Up is a composite Digital Collage which questions the wisdom of the relentless drive towards maximizing fossil fuel extraction through Fracking and other new techniques at a time when profound ecological pressures are raising the spectre of Global Warming on our collective horizons.

"All Tomorrows Weather" (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. All Tomorrows Weather is a Digital Collage which visualises the link between the Coal Burning and Mining activities that we carry out on or underground and the resulting consequences for our Skies. As a result of carbon emissions our atmosphere is becoming warmer. Greater atmospheric temperatures result in a more energetic atmosphere, larger heat differentials from area to area and ultimately stronger winds and more extreme weather formations. Yesterday Hurricane Irma the biggest ever hurricane recorded over the Atlantic began tearing its way through the island communities of the Caribbean on its way to make landfall in Florida by the weekend.

It is the second Megastorm to form over the Atlantic in three weeks which is in of itself unprecedented. Climate scientists are fearing this could be the new normal.

"Plastic Beach" (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. Plastic Beach is a Digital Collage which struggles against the overwhelming tide of plastic waste filling our oceans. According to research by the Plastic Oceans Organisation every year more than 8 million tons of plastic floods into our oceans. We are producing plastics at the most prodigious rate in our history and most of this consists of packaging which only ever sees a single use. An unfathomable 91% of all plastic is never recycled with 1 million plastic bags used per minute and over 500 Billion used every year. We have reached a stage where 90% of all seabirds have plastic in their stomachs and the National Geographic Society announced in July of this year that a plastic garbage patch the size of Mexico was discovered drifting in the South Pacific off the coasts of Chile and Peru. So much of this is avoidable with better recycling initiatives and alternative packaging solutions. Hopefully change is on its way, as ultimately our Oceans are not disposable.

"The Brinksman's Horizon" (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. The Brinksman's Horizon is a Digital Collage which stares at the growing threat of nuclear proliferation on the Korean Peninsula and the wanton use of threatening, provocative language by A Brinksman in Chief at the United Nations Congress this week. In spite of potent economic sanctions the regime in North Korea have recently made rapid advancements in both the destructive capacity and range of their nuclear weapons.

In just the last few months North Korea claim to have successfully detonated a Thermonuclear Device orders of magnitude more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All the while International tensions are flaring into open hostility with President Trump's warning that he may have no choice but to "Totally Destroy North Korea" at the U.N podium. Interesting Times, Let’s just hope more level heads prevail.

"Paradise Lost / Blood Money" (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. Paradise Lost/Blood Money is a Digital Collage which is entangled in a web of international tax evasion schemes. This week has seen the release of The Paradise Papers. A massive leak of files detailing the offshore schemes, havens and agencies employed by the super-rich to avoid paying their fair share back into a society which benefits them the most. When large corporations and wealthy individuals forgo the responsibility of tax payments the results for our society are devastating. With more of this tax money filtering back upwards instead of going down, there is less and less in the pot to pay for vital services like healthcare, education, policing, social support, transport and in some countries the result is a lack of essential food programmes, medicine, clean water or emergency aid. There is no easy way to say it, Tax evasion and avoidance kills people.

"The Hills Have Eyes" (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. The Hills Have Eyes is a Digital Collage which goes off grid and takes to the mountains to evade the all-pervading, all seeing eye of globalized big data collection and electronic surveillance. George Orwell has left the building and Big Brother has made an entrance of truly epic proportions. Personal Privacy is dead or dying with detailed information about our location, shopping preferences, social groups, interests, what newspaper articles we prefer, what kind of opinions we hold, what businesses we frequent, etc. Being broadcast on a constant basis; before being collated and sold amongst large corporations and governmental organisations for huge profits.

Those street corners which bristle with CCTV cameras seem quaint by comparison to the sophistication of Smartphones, Computers and other wearable technologies in gathering, integrating and transmitting detailed information about our locations and behaviours. In the modern world we are perpetually 'On The Air' and once our information is in the wind we have no way of controlling it, or getting it back.

"The War On Sleep" (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. The War On Sleep is a Digital Collage which ambles bleary eyed from one day to the next under the pall of chronic sleep deprivation. With the electrification of night time, daily stressors, shift work and constant demands for attention from social media and our electronic devices, today’s adults are perpetually failing to get their full night’s sleep. In the short term Sleep Deprivation causes fatigue, cognitive blunting, and forgetfulness; reduces our ability to manage our emotions and has a negative impact on our mental health. In the long term it can lay the foundations for heart disease, diabetes, obesity, depression and various forms of dementia.

"Exodus From Mother Earth" (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. Exodus from Mother Earth is a Digital Collage which highlights considerations that are being made to jump ship. We are now living in a new Geological era. The Anthropocene is defined as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. We are told that extinction rates are rising, celebrities are dying, the oceans are becoming acidified, genetic diversity is waning and that even the Great Barrier Reef may no longer be salvageable. All the while plans are being made for some of us to to reach Mars for a chance to establish a colony and to begin anew.

"Lay Down Your Weapons" (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. Lay Down Your Weapons is a Digital Collage which takes aim at the staggering rates of Gun Violence which occur in the United States. According to the Gun Violence Archive in 2017 to date there have been a total of 48,309 incidents of which 1,571 were unintentional shootings and 564 resulted in the injury or death of a child (aged between 0 - 11 years). That's without mentioning the almost daily mass shootings including the recent tragedy in Las Vegas. Still the debate rages on and heavy resistance to increased gun controls persists.

"No Direction Home" (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. No Direction Home is a Digital Collage which shivers at the plight of Refugees, Global Displacement and Homelessness. Whether its from Religious Persecution, Conflict, Environmental Catastrophe, Economic Distress or The Housing Crisis, from Africa and The Middle East to The Caribbean or on to our own streets in Ireland people are being uprooted from their homes at record levels. As of late 2016 The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has found that there are 65.6 million people who have been displaced from their homes worldwide. This is the largest number ever on record.

“A Suffocating Presence” (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. A Suffocating Presence is a Digital Collage unmasking the blight of Air Pollution in our industrialized world. According to the World Health Organization Air Pollution is one of the world’s leading preventable causes of death. Air Pollution takes a toll of almost 7 million lives a year worldwide. Contributing to the development of non-communicable respiratory diseases, ischemic heart disease and increased vulnerability to secondary infections. In some of our worlds more industrialized and densely populated cities, exercising outside for even short periods will now do more harm than good due to the inhalation of fine particulates and industrial emissions. Time for a break in the country …

"No Ice" (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. No Ice is a Digital Collage which huddles for space on the edges of the ever depleting polar ice caps. As our good Earth has warmed under a cloud of greenhouse gas, the eco-systems of the Arctic and Antarctic have become less and less tenable, driving indigenous species out of their homes. If these trends persist, the collapse of glaciers and ice shelves into the sea will precipitate a massive rise in sea levels. It will then be the habitat of the human that shrinks, and anyway where’s Santa going to live?

"War Child" (2019) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of The Reflections On An Age Of Anxiety Series. War Child is a Digital Collage that cries out at the thought of a simple political or tactical miscalculation leading to the spread of war. Tensions mount at global flashpoints when the world’s most powerful militaries engage in posturing behaviour with one another. Flashpoints occur where countries spheres of influence overlap and a struggle for dominance ensues. For instance the naval collisions and near misses between China and the USA in the disputed islands of the South China Sea, Russian military aircraft probing British airspace, Mounting tensions in the Middle East over attacks on Oil Tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the recent downing of a US drone nearly resulting in American military action against Iran, these all carry a real risk of large nations blindly blundering towards disaster.

"Worlds On Fire" (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. Worlds On Fire is a Digital Collage which sifts through the glowing embers of the once mighty forests felled by Wildfire. With the memory still fresh in the collective conscious of last year’s dramatic evacuation of Fort Mc Murray, Canada as a wildfire unprecedented in speed and scale effectively laid siege to the city. Again we are hot on the heels of an extremely active season of wildfires, with massive fires reported in both Portugal and California. Due to Climate Change, Low Precipitation and Drought the air, land and even vegetation are all unusually dry, in these conditions all it takes is a careless camper or even an errant lightning strike to set the world alight. Tend carefully to your campfires!

"Suffer The Little Children" (2018) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

 Part of The Reflections On An Age Of Anxiety Series. Suffer The Little Children is a Digital Collage which is currently detained in a 'Tender Age' camp near the US border. Over 2,000 distressed children have been forcibly separated from their families and detained in cages as a punitive measure taken against those who would attempt to cross the southern border of the United States. When children and especially infants suffer prolonged periods of separation from their parents and other primary care givers, deep emotional trauma is usually the result and that’s to say nothing of the other distressing circumstances and conditions at play here. Thankfully the American people and their public backlash has forced an ending to this cruel policy. Hopefully those children can be identified and reunited with their loved ones soon.

"Under Stifling Waves" (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. Under Stifling Waves is a Digital Collage which seeks relief from the relentless humidity of a future of Wet Bulb Environments and turgid Heatwaves. Next month we will see out the end of one of the hottest years on record. Due to Climate Change extreme heatwaves are already becoming more common place, placing huge stresses on the critical infrastructure on which populations depend. Ecologists studying the hard limits of heat and survivability have warned of the potential future formation of Wet Bulb Environments as global temperatures rise.

A Wet Bulb Environment occurs once the air becomes heated and saturated with humidity past a certain threshold, beyond this point a human body can no longer dispense with its excess heat through perspiration as the air has already reached maximum saturation. Without an effective means for shedding this heat, the body’s core temperature quickly builds to lethal levels. All the more reason to keep a cool head.

"The Needle And The Damage Done / Discordia" (2017) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

Part of the Reflections On An Age of Anxiety Series. The Needle And The Damage Done is a Digital Collage which aches with the pain of the growing epidemic in Opioid related addiction and overdose. Like Morphine and Heroin, Oxycodone and Fentanyl are Powerful synthetic derivatives of the Poppy plant. Although Oxycodone is legally available by prescription and was originally intended for pain management, it is highly addictive and its rates of prescription have skyrocketed, this is resulting in daily overdose deaths in Canada and America. As the danger has become clearer and regulations have tightened on the prescription of Oxycodone; Individuals already caught in a cycle of addiction are turning to both Heroin and Fentanyl, Oxycodone's more potent, more addictive and more lethal cousins to fill the void.