Perhaps inspired by our unprecedented current reality and Abma's keen interest in Ancient civilization, Abma's latest body of work seeks to bring the catastrophic events of Pompeii into greater context to present time. This series of paintings, animations and prints explore an alternate reality to Abma's hypothetical future, in which D.I.S. Tech (Digital Imprint Storage Technology) prominently rules humanity's digital future. In this future, humanity defeats mortality to remain constant in a digital utopia, amidst a global dystopian crisis. Whether this is a blessing or a curse is to be determined by the viewer. 

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Abma's new reality features a global catastrophic failure, causing D.I.S.Tech to "unplug" indefinitely. All security in the infinite realm of the digital world is frozen and locked. Similarly, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE buried an entire city in a matter of minutes, consuming and preserving an entire people for centuries. Despite this destruction, Pompeii is one of the clearest pictures into ancient civilization, as the ashes of Mount Vesuvius captured and held the grotesque image of Pompeii under fire. 

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In this new series titled "Pompeii," Abma explores imagery from within the D.I.S.Tech digital realm, frozen and shutdown like a snapshot into an ancient civilization captured by ash. Currently, Covid-19 grips the world in a similar fashion, shutting down and essentially freezing civilization in many ways. Amidst the catastrophe though, humanity has a clearer look at itself in a mirror. Both the good and bad reveal themselves within a frozen civilization. Through the unplugging of D.I.S.Tech, Abma's work portrays digitized houseplants as a stand-in for the human figure, capturing this angst, uncertainty, and solitude of a compromised digital future. Although believable in their space, these figures capture an essence of being absent, lost and deformed by their reality. Despite the figuration of the houseplant as a dark mood, Abma utilizes light sources in these spaces to highlight a sense of hope, or a way out; the theme of angst versus hope, or light versus dark is prominent in Abma's work.      

 

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