The two illustrations were created as a diptych, initially intending to contrast a paranoid, conspiracy theory driven view of the world, with a serene, peaceful approach, focused on everyday life.
For the creation of the Conspiracy image, I quizzed my friends and made a list of the most memorable conspiracies, from ”the reptilians run the world”, ”the aliens built the pyramids”, ”birds are battery powered drones”, ”airplanes leave chemtrails” and, of course, ”the earth is flat”. With the last one, the geometry seemed to be a bit unclear, with various sources proposing either a flat circle surrounded by the mountains of Antarctica, beneath which lay forbidden continents, or a flat disk floating either on elephants or on concrete pillars over an endless sea.
I did try to create the serene image afterwards, but it seemed to neither counter, nor explain the conspiracy one. So I went back to the drawing board to create a pessimistic view of all the world’s problems, to which the conspiracies would seem to provide an explanation but also… a reassuring narrative and the illusion of control and self-importance. I must admit that the ”realistic pessimism” image was a lot harder and a lot more depressing to draw than the conspiracy one, which at least held some, albeit very twisted, fantasy elements.
