Mike Roshuk imagines a future where 'chaos has ruled'
Wallis Snowdon · CBC News · Posted: Dec 11, 2020
In this digital painting by Mike Roshuk, Edmonton's arena becomes a chilling scene of a downtown destroyed. (Mike Roshuk)
An Edmonton artist is painting the city in a dark, dystopian light.
Mike Roshuk alters photographs of the capital, transforming familiar urban landscapes into stark images of post-apocalyptic destruction.
The digital paintings imagine a city in a not-so-distant future devoid of people, its buildings abandoned and crumbling with age.
The once glimmering skyscrapers of downtown appear dilapidated, their windows shattered and overgrown with rotting vegetation.
Once sturdy historic landmarks, turned to rubble.
Rogers Place becomes a dilapidated field hospital.
'Law and order has left'
The legislature appears on the edge of collapse, its columns cracked and stone turrets heaving dangerously. A military tank covered in graffiti stands watch nearby.
Roshuk said he delights in the details. Each one takes him eight to 10 hours to complete.
"I wanted to kind of tell a story," he said. "Where people can look at it and think, what happened?"
"Law and order has left. Chaos has ruled."
An Edmonton artist is painting the city in a dark, dystopian light.
Mike Roshuk alters photographs of the capital, transforming familiar urban landscapes into stark images of post-apocalyptic destruction.
The digital paintings imagine a city in a not-so-distant future devoid of people, its buildings abandoned and crumbling with age.
The once glimmering skyscrapers of downtown appear dilapidated, their windows shattered and overgrown with rotting vegetation.
Once sturdy historic landmarks, turned to rubble.
Rogers Place becomes a dilapidated field hospital.
'Law and order has left'
The legislature appears on the edge of collapse, its columns cracked and stone turrets heaving dangerously. A military tank covered in graffiti stands watch nearby.
Roshuk said he delights in the details. Each one takes him eight to 10 hours to complete.
"I wanted to kind of tell a story," he said. "Where people can look at it and think, what happened?"
"Law and order has left. Chaos has ruled."
In this altered image of Jasper Avenue and 101st Street in a not so distant future, iconic buildings have begun to collapse. (Mike Roshuk)
Roshuk, who previously worked as a professional illustrator, said he began the "nerdy project" just for fun as the pandemic began to restrict daily life this spring.
He took photographs and then spent hours carefully altering them digitally on Photoshop.
A fan of video games, sci-fi films and the zombie genre, Roshuk said he wanted to imagine how some of his favourite plots would play out in his home city.
"Watching these movies, it's always like New York or L.A. or Las Vegas being destroyed," he said.
"After a while, it's like you kind of almost expect it, right? Like, OK, here's L.A. being hit by a tsunami again.
"You're so used to seeing these cities being destroyed by aliens or natural disasters, it just doesn't even resonate anymore."
Roshuk, who previously worked as a professional illustrator, said he began the "nerdy project" just for fun as the pandemic began to restrict daily life this spring.
He took photographs and then spent hours carefully altering them digitally on Photoshop.
A fan of video games, sci-fi films and the zombie genre, Roshuk said he wanted to imagine how some of his favourite plots would play out in his home city.
"Watching these movies, it's always like New York or L.A. or Las Vegas being destroyed," he said.
"After a while, it's like you kind of almost expect it, right? Like, OK, here's L.A. being hit by a tsunami again.
"You're so used to seeing these cities being destroyed by aliens or natural disasters, it just doesn't even resonate anymore."
Mike Roshuk says he delights in the dreadful details of his digital paintings. (Supplied by Mike Roshuk)
Roshuk said his renderings were partly inspired by Black Summer, a Netflix series set in the early days of a zombie apocalypse.
Many of the scenes in the show were filmed in Calgary and watching the plot unfold in familiar territory gave Roshuk a strange sense of foreboding.
"I started watching it and then I had to pause it and look it up, because so many of the locations were familiar," he said.
"It really gave me more like an uneasy feeling of dread because, you know, it's like it hit home.
"That's sort of where the inspiration for these images came from. I wanted to, I guess, give myself that same feeling of dread again."
'End-of-the-world fantasy'
Roshuk has been regularly posting his images online and they're garnering hundreds of comments on social media forums like Reddit.
Many have told Roshuk the images hit a little too close to home during a global pandemic.
"Because of timing and everything that was going on in the world and in the news, I kind of knew that they would go crazy a little bit and they'd really resonate with people," he said.
"This is just purely entertainment, a disaster, end-of-the-world fantasy. But it's neat when you put images out there and then they go a little bit viral, it's always interesting to see the different ways people like to spin it."
Roshuk said his renderings were partly inspired by Black Summer, a Netflix series set in the early days of a zombie apocalypse.
Many of the scenes in the show were filmed in Calgary and watching the plot unfold in familiar territory gave Roshuk a strange sense of foreboding.
"I started watching it and then I had to pause it and look it up, because so many of the locations were familiar," he said.
"It really gave me more like an uneasy feeling of dread because, you know, it's like it hit home.
"That's sort of where the inspiration for these images came from. I wanted to, I guess, give myself that same feeling of dread again."
'End-of-the-world fantasy'
Roshuk has been regularly posting his images online and they're garnering hundreds of comments on social media forums like Reddit.
Many have told Roshuk the images hit a little too close to home during a global pandemic.
"Because of timing and everything that was going on in the world and in the news, I kind of knew that they would go crazy a little bit and they'd really resonate with people," he said.
"This is just purely entertainment, a disaster, end-of-the-world fantasy. But it's neat when you put images out there and then they go a little bit viral, it's always interesting to see the different ways people like to spin it."
Roshuk's rendering shows the legislature being reclaimed by nature. A tank standing nearby hints at conflicts past. (Supplied by Mike Roshuk)
Roshuk plans to tackle his next project soon. He's musing over some images of big predators like bears battling on Jasper Avenue or a decimated West Edmonton Mall.
If not, Edmonton's cold, stark winter might also prove to be cruel enough inspiration.
"Now that it's snowing more, maybe I'll do some more pictures and have a snowy frozen wasteland of Edmonton. But I'm not really sure how different that will be from today."
Roshuk plans to tackle his next project soon. He's musing over some images of big predators like bears battling on Jasper Avenue or a decimated West Edmonton Mall.
If not, Edmonton's cold, stark winter might also prove to be cruel enough inspiration.
"Now that it's snowing more, maybe I'll do some more pictures and have a snowy frozen wasteland of Edmonton. But I'm not really sure how different that will be from today."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Wallis Snowdon is a digital journalist with CBC Edmonton. She has nearly a decade of experience reporting behind her. Originally from New Brunswick, her journalism career has taken her from Nova Scotia to Fort McMurray. Share your stories with Wallis at wallis.snowdon@cbc.ca
With files from Emily Fitzpatrick
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