Candice Binjacar
she/her
French, 1998
Thesis: Oh la vache !
Here we are, speeding through the Milky Way on a spaceship we call Earth. A fiery engine, powered by nuclear fission, sets our days in motion. Billions of stars dot the sky before one rises in the east, as it always has, at least so far. Nobody has ever reached this far into the future.
So here we are, and everything seems alien to us. We have transformed our surroundings into resources and nudged all beings to supply our demand. The dinosaurs have disappeared, and we have built concrete blocks that scrape the sky, living in their shadow.
When the sun sets in the west, darkness falls, and we have moved yet closer to the end of the future. How can we not be overwhelmed? Yet usually we aren't. We close our eyes, fall asleep, open them again, and then go about our days.
For Candice, this might mean making a few bucks by working in a supermarket named after the Scandinavian god Odin, creator of humankind and the grandchild of Audhumla, the primeval cow that, with her four udders, created the Milky Way. Most days, however, Candice spends with one hand in clay while the other writes and draws. As one of her eyes attentively observes her direct present, the other gazes into the distance, looking into history, mythology, or fiction. Cows help her navigate in the journey towards other futures. Are the gods still alive and kicking? Perhaps these mammals, beings of silence, already know.
