Alex Andreev is a Russian artist. He calls his style “hermetic,” and while I’m not sure what that means exactly, his work is certainly compelling. Many of his paintings — computer-aided, I assume — seem to imagine this very specific urban future, in which humanity has adapted to a new life in the clouds after having more or less ruined, then abandoned, the ground. For instance, here are a cluster of skyscraping apartments, at once desolate and whimsical:
Another painting finds their tops, tickling the stratosphere:
… though a few bottom-dwellers still scrape by in shantytowns below the clouds:
Meanwhile, up above, subway travel has entered the next generation, tracks suspended with balloons …
… driven by creepy light-face-people …
… or alternatively, there are the suspended railcar skytrams, which look about as friendly (and heavy) as cattlecars but somehow manage to creep along high-tension wires in the sky:
Skytram traffic signals:
A lonely skytram stop (inspired, perhaps, by Magritte’s “The Empire of Light”):
Waiting for the tram to arrive:
And finally, high above it all, floating islands of tranquil suburban bliss:
Comments (7)
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Cool stuff. 30 plus years on and Roger Dean’s legacy is still alive and well.
posted by Tim on 4-17-2009 at 1:01 pm
“Another painting finds [the skyscraping apartments] tops, tickling the stratosphere:”
I believe those are ribs of a skeleton.
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CEC-Q
posted by Chas C-Q on 4-17-2009 at 4:10 pm
“Another painting finds the [skyscraping apartments] tops, tickling the stratosphere:”
I believe those are ribs of a skeleton.
–
CEC-Q
posted by Chas C-Q on 4-17-2009 at 4:17 pm
Awesome, awesome stuff! Haven’t seen imagination of this scope for a long, long time – will definitely be spotlighting this on my blog!
posted by Dave on 4-18-2009 at 2:17 am
Now you’ve deleted two comment’s I have left because you don’t want your readers to know this content was published at englishrussia.com a day before it appeared here.
This is not the first time that a topic idea has been borrowed from their site a day later.
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debates spurns
That’s ironic
posted by Hiro Protagonist on 4-18-2009 at 1:23 pm
These tram stations look pretty cool and more importantly, harder for homeless people to find and urinate in.
posted by David Gorcey on 4-18-2009 at 2:27 pm
Floating islands. Very beautiful. I’m proud of Andreev cause he is Russian.
posted by markinyan on 12-22-2009 at 12:40 am