Masterpieces’ Prophecies shows a number of masterpieces of art history prophesying the urge to care for our planet.
We see Michelangelo’s (1475-1564) God. God is not creating Adam, but Andy Warhols (1928-1987) Cambell’s Chicken Soup-can. Boxem uses Warhols can, to represent the first generation to prioritise capitalism, mass-production and economical growth above craftsmanship, nature and men itself. At this point in history we knowingly start to disadvantage our planet, while being aware of the consequences. This results in Eschers (1898-1972) Gecko’s as the plastic soup and Alexis Rockmans (1962-) melting ice caps. Rockman also paints jellyfish in a couple of his paintings like in ‘Manifest Destiny’. Boxem combines the jellyfish with plastic bags; the fact that some jellyfish (Turritopsis Nutricula) are practicly immortal, is a metaphor for plastic being nearly imperishable. Picasso’s (1881-1973) bull and horse from Guernica, represent the great numbers of wars being fought nowadays. Dalí’s (1904-1989) elephant has thin and breakable long legs. According to Dalí, “this symbolises the high morals of humans in contrast to the fact that we will be bound to earth by gravity forever. The legs, as well as our morals, will stretch out high up in the sky, while our feet will remain in the earthly dirt”. Jheronimus Bosch (1450-1516) his Hellish figures are what could remain after abusing our planet the way we do.
