Into the Chthulucene

Drawing from the genres of speculative and weird fiction; the visual paradigms of the grotesque and surreal; and the philosophical veins of speculative realism, my work posits potential futures—visions of a world unfurling, in uncertain balance, at the threshold of the Chthulucene. In 'Into the Chthulucene,' I trace the literary, philosophical, and visual inheritances that inform my work, particularly the nonhuman worlds depicted in my paintings and drawings. Exploring concepts ranging from Donna J. Haraway's notion of 'tentacularity' to Michael Marder's 'phytophenomenology' to Mark Fisher's theorizations of the 'weird' and the 'eerie' and N. Katherine Hayles' 'posthuman,' this paper contextualizes my work along visual and thematic lines of inquiry, exploring what it means to grapple with uncertain, potentially inhospitable futures, but also the deep and inspiring complexity of the nonhuman worlds within and beyond us.