These images/text writeups are some of what you would see if you went on a museum tour at Daylight Falls Municipal Museum in Temperance during CLEAR’s “Underground Art” exhibit. Bringing together Drairburgers of all different backgrounds and socioeconomic ranks, the show was very popular (though not without controversy, as you’ll see in the descriptions).

Title: “Gaze”
Media: Undershrub resin/blood/paint, on canvas
Artist: Jamie Grayhaime

Artist’s Statement:

“I became clinically hysterical during a walk through Uptown. I don’t know about what.

The lights and sounds were unbearable. The city was all noise. A haze. I sat down in the middle of the street and cried. No one stopped to ask me how I was doing, they just brushed past. A stranger touched my face, I think—I don’t know if it was on purpose or not—and my body was paralyzed. I wanted to scream, and I tried to, but nothing came out except a dry heave.

A lumen storm snapped me out of it. My transitions turned pitch black, and I was able to gather myself and drag my feet the couple blocks to the Upstreet Stair, which I climbed.

I emerged behind them. Two kids—both majors. They were both standing there, just watching the storm through an opening in the side of the crag. They did not move. At all. For about an hour I just sat and stared at them. I didn’t say anything, and neither did they.

For another hour, I stood there, deciding whether I should say “Hello” or not. They still didn’t move. I fled without looking back.

The next day I was buying my mocha outside of the thrift store on Crown and Point. I noticed a big hole in the window, covered up by temporary plastic wrapping. Two of the mannequins were missing.

“Fuck,” I said out loud.

That’s when I knew I had to make this piece.

I went back up the Stair that night. There was nothing there.

I guess I’ll never know if they were real people or not. For me, I suppose it doesn’t make a difference.”

—

This piece shows the Upstreet Stair, which looks down on Drairburg from the Upstreet/Uptown Hills. The light pollution from city streetlights can be seen here, mingling with the glow from CLEAR vessels stationed above in Greatest Lake.

Greatest Lake, known as The Arctic Ocean to top-dwellers, is sealed off from the underground by a thin sheet of transparent “EZ glass” shaped to resemble ice. Natural light that penetrates the glass from certain angles produces the phenomenon of lumen storms, which bathe the city below in a glow that Tubman described as “the good kind of eerie.”

Cherubic worldbuilders did not initially feel like the Handwavium expenditure for the glass was justified for “a mostly-cosmetic asset” (it cost them a quarter of their Choir-allotted ‘Cool Points,’ as engineering Committee Heads gave it a plausibility rating of “observably dubious”), but a last-minute plea to aesthetics won the day. Surely, many artists are grateful for this.

Title: “Ocean Eyes”
Media: Digital painting
Artist: De’spairil Williams

Artist’s Statement:

“Warning:

This is not a gang shootout:
I am not
grasping at holsters
for guns that I do not own,
statements, behaviors I do not recognize.

This is not an overdose:
I am not
gripping fists full of needles,
chemical demomen
ready to dynamite my veins.

This is not a porno spread:
I am not
groping my own breasts,
splayed out—
a crude silhouette—
black,
with a white background,
while you fumble around for the John Moneyshot.

This is not an academic conquest:
I am not
your name first on an article
filled with names
unlike my own,
in a journal
that,
like a teenage tear-book,
might be read by one other person
(barring your suicide).

This is not a city of ancients:
I am not
a sarcophagus left in ruins,
to be pried open hastily
and set aside
for the main event,
the sniffing of
a celebrated carcass.”

—

OCEAN EYES captures a street-level view from Drairburg, at the intersection of Poverty and Elm. Two residents can be seen inside their delivery truck, sheltering in place in anticipation of a photographic barrage.

A CLEAR submersible floats in the waters above, in a part of Greatest Lake known as “Downblouse.” This location is commonly used by CLEAR, as it provides a view of the most economically deprived section of the city and can accommodate a Dickens-Class submersible comfortably. Skilled captains can position the vessels in such a way as to allow the use of both rotocameras at once, providing maximum coverage.

Title: “Sinclair, A Study of Light”
Media: Undershrub resin/paint, on canvas
Artist: Allan Wormtongue-Rice

Artist’s Statement:

“This is my first work using undershrub resin, a reagent that I normally eschew.

I won’t lie: in this community, my criticism of works using the substance has been vocal, and, frankly, outright hostile. I’m the guy who went around saying stuff like “res makes everything look like it has a CRIMP filter thrown over it,” and “fuck me, not another glow job!” Yeah, I’m the one who first used the slight “in media res,” to describe works I felt were “all overload and eye-strain with no real saccadic narrative.”

The truth is, I’ve been a real dick. Not just in “the scene,” or whatever, but everywhere. I need to make amends, and I understand that. This is my feeble attempt.

John: I’m sorry, man. You know that I really, really like and value your feedback and charm and wit (even if I don’t totally get the humor in every single one of your jostles). I understand the choices you made in GLEEN, and I’m super sorry about what happened with Kevin. I was wrong.

Vertie: I know you hate me for what I did in that last convo, but honestly, this isn’t really about “honor” or any other stupid shit. I could care less about that. I was (and am) just trying to help you reach your full potential as an artist.

& Jamie: Jamie, it fucking kills me to know that what I said actually hurt you. You know I’m sympathetic to your history and illness, and I wasn’t trying to minimize any of that. My new number is 867-5309. Please, Jamie. I know I overstepped, and in doing so, drew assumptions about you from your art & vice versa that I didn’t mean to. That was reductive, I’m sorry. If I do it again, please feel free to put me in check. But please don’t hate me. I fucking love you.

As far as the piece itself, fuck I dunno. It’s basically Upton Sinclair. Maybe the green, red and yellow symbolize traffic in some way? Who knows?”

—

Gregory Heights Stationary Metropolitan Mucker Number 14, known colloquially as “Upton Sinclair,” is the subject of SINCLAIR, A STUDY OF LIGHT.

Most citizens of Drairburg have a love/hate relationship with the muckraker, an animal dually synonymous with urban decay and renewal.

The creature’s natural ability to project light—used as part of a complex reproductive display—is a direct nuisance to people, often inducing widespread behavioral changes (this has been likened to theories of moon-related paranoia). On the other hand, the muckraker’s territorial nature has led to it being seen as a cultural icon, with duels between competing animals regarded as public sporting events.

Many revere muckrakers as neighborhood mascots, and though they are frequently lethal to residents who venture too close, they are generally considered to be community assets. Certain popular religions, including the Church of the Bell Curve, attach spiritual significance to their biology (statistics-magick, for example, is normalized and integrated into many C-majors’ lives).

Among the more contentious social issues posed by muckrakers is their nesting behavior. Nest-building females often “mark” buildings with reddish webbing, and later return to destroy them when they intend to build a dwelling. A female may prepare several such dwellings in this way, and use only one. Recognizing this, city officials move quickly to condemn all structures marked by muckrakers and relocate the residents, and this often leads to conflict. Conspiracy theories claiming that corrupt aldermen have learned how to harness the creatures for their own benefit are rampant (many believe that muckrakers are used to gentrify poor neighborhoods, for example).

Title: “The Mind’s Gate”
Media: Ink on special canvas
Artist: Seren-Ha

Artist’s Statement:

“So, full disclosure, I was a member of the League of Seren Extrasensatives. I’m better now.

The government doesn’t allow former Serens to legally change their names back to those we were given at birth. Yes, we’re marked for life for being part of the organization.

This is a policy that I strongly disagree with, because it makes full deprogramming nearly impossible. I chose to use my Seren name for this work to call attention to this fact. I want you to see me as a member of the League—as a fraud, as a charlatan, as an abuser—in addition to seeing me as an artist.

This work is a culmination of feelings I’ve had for a while.

It is a piece of the Psicloth, the material which every Seren acolyte uses to make their garments. The League believes that Psicloth contains the essence of The Assembler, which makes it a direct conduit for divine power.

This is just a blank canvas, nothing more. Don’t bother trying to see anything else, it isn’t there. There is no third eye.

Or, you know, maybe I’m just not “worthy” enough.”

—

The inclusion of THE MIND’S GATE in this gallery has been controversial.

It employs “glimmer ink,” the rare Seren-made compound that changes its properties depending on how many people are observing it. The observer threshold for this work’s ink is 1, meaning that more than one person looking at the painting will “scramble” its composition, displaying an apparently blank canvas.

If you were to view this work alone, with no one else around, it would contain a message (located roughly in the center of the canvas) that reads as follows:

THERE IS A THIRD EYE. SEE THE PAST AND THE FUTURE.

https://www.miserytourism.com/tag/melkrin/

The intent of the creator is the source of much speculation. Is this a statement about the allure of uniqueness? About how support networks can help cleanse the taint of cult indoctrination? Something else?

Seren-Ha’s identity has been verified, though her story about departing the League could not be immediately confirmed, and curators of this exhibition have expressed concerns about hosting what could be taken by some—particularly those with mental illnesses—as evidence of their own psychic ability. Such an affirmation would seem to support and validate the claims made by the League of Seren Extrasensitives, which is something we do not feel comfortable doing here.

Because of this, we have tailored the museum tour so that THE MIND’S GATE cannot be viewed without a curator present to explain its significance.

You may view a “mocked up” digital version of it on the CLEAR website once the exhibition is completed.

I’m grateful for everyone who worked on GIMP and the G’MIC extension, since those allowed me to create these images.

GIMP (https://www.gimp.org/)
G’MIC (http://gmic.eu)
David Tschumperlé (Symmetrize filter)
Garagecoder (Aurora filter)
PhotoComiX (Graphic Boost, Graphic Novel filters)
Arto Huotari (Dream Smoothing filter)

Also, https://pixabay.com/ has dem dank CC0 images.