Clement Hil Goldberg is collaborating with CounterPulse to create Our Future Ends, an interdisciplinary work of discrete objects, sculptural installation, animation/video projection, and live theater. The piece connects, as a metaphoric frame, the near-extinct lemur primates of Madagascar to an imagined queer prehistory. It features an imagined land, Lemuria, with stop-animation lemurs voiced by queer and transgender artists, plus video documentation filmed by Goldberg at the Duke Lemur Center.
Lemurs are the most endangered mammals on the planet, and even if their species is rehabilitated to adequate numbers in captivity, they will be unable to return home as 90% of their forests in Madagascar are gone. Goldberg sees parallels between their decline, which became precipitous in the early 1970s, and the concurrent loss of artists, culture, and community due to the AIDS crisis.
Clement Goldberg has an established and varied arts career in photography, design, installation art, and film. Since 1991, CounterPulse has provided space and resources for emerging artists and cultural innovators, serving as an incubator for the creation of socially relevant and community-based art. Partnering with CounterPulse enhances Goldberg’s exploration of multi-disciplinary forms. Our Future Ends will premiere at CounterPulse in October 2017.