As the irreparable impact of mass agriculture, deforestation, industrialization, and resource extraction becomes increasingly evident with the heightened frequency of -natural disasters, the Canadian artist Colin Lyons draws inspiration from post-industrial ruins, sacrificial landscapes, and the Anthropocene to imagine speculative -narratives that explore techno-solutionist futures. Lyons grew up in Petrolia, Ontario, a rustbelt town known as the birthplace of the oil industry in North America. He draws from historical materials, such as sixteenth–century engravings, the ruins of a lock on the Michigan canal, and a seventeenth-century textbook, to acknowledge significant sites of North America\u2019s manufacturing past. He also co-opts the vocabulary of techno-capitalism to devise spaces of experimentation by setting up temporary laboratories. For example, Laboratory of Everlasting Solutions<\/em> (2021) was a semi-permanent printing facility installed on the exterior grounds of the Unison Art Center in New Platz, New York. Over the course of its existence, the \u201clab\u201d printed prototypical solutions that tackled issues ranging from desalination of arctic waters, soil phytoremediation, the restoration of brownfields, and the fertilization of coastal ecosystems. The project highlighted a future contingent on technological innovations and strategic management of human and natural resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, geoengineering\u200a\u2014\u200atechnologies that counteract the effect of climate change and manipulate the environment at a large scale\u200a\u2014\u200ahas become Lyons\u2019s main subject of interest. Another recent project, We will find salvation in strategic chemical<\/em> spills<\/em> (2022), consists of a series of silkscreens produced with inks made from various kinds of industrial materials, such as crude oil, sulfuric acid, iron sulfate, silica, and pyrite. These prints illustrate various idealistic solutions, including a massive planetary sunshade and artificial icebergs. Although most of these radical strategies are only potentialities, Lyons\u2019s goal is to elicit an urgent and critical consideration of these dystopian, but inevitable, strategies to counter the effect of an imminent ecological collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A curator of exhibitions and projects in North America, Europe, and Asia, Ana\u00efs Castro is a founding member of the curatorial collective The Department of Love and an editorial member of Daily Lazy. She publishes regularly with various art magazines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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