We'll be gone by then
A corrupted vision of the not-too-distant future, we'll be gone by then is a dialogue between two unnamed co-conspirators. The video shows them editing fake aerial photographs to add credibility to a sales pitch for a nuclear waste site. Their goal is to attract a wealthy nation state looking to dump their waste on another country, and pay millions over 200 years for local people to maintain the site. To reach these ends the conspirators agree to make the landscape look as desolate as possible. In truth, the landscape is a pristine forest, but the co-conspirators understand that it is more politically palatable for the purchasers to buy a damaged site. The title we'll be gone by then, comes from the most honest answer given in the entire dialogue, when one of the conspirators asks the other; "doesn't this stuff have a half life of 20,000 years?"
Ambiguous in place and time, the artwork explores the relationship between the society that makes the waste, the people in the business of storing it, and the society who has to live with the consequences of its toxicity. The dialogue expresses the detachment and greed that makes these decisions possible, especially when those closest to the land are not able to defend it. This story is fictional, but this kind of conversation, about all kinds of waste, has occurred many times worldwide.