(Round Apocalyptic Landscape)
Anonymous
Found 08/2010, Thrift Town (Stassney and Manchaca)

At once pastoral and frightening, (Landscape) shows a world caught in what appears to be the end of its span. Rimmed in embellished gold, the frame becomes an architectural feature, a window onto this dying land. The sky and landscape are distorted, as if seen through thick antique glass. Overhead, the sky is a deep red, suggesting not a sunset so much as a sullen fire at the edge of perception. Blazing points of yellow light drift across the image, tiny motes of fire over a land aflame.

This is a tamed apocalypse, constrained by the genteel nature of its frame and its ornamentation. Perhaps it’s a window onto another world, or perhaps, as the antique design of the frame suggests, the land that is beyond salvation is the pastoral green fields of the past, consigned to the memories of people who, themselves, are no longer with us.