A ponderance for the future is a staple of the human experience. A looming reality, it reminds us of things unknown and unseen, including our eventual demise. Yet, in spite of the impending doom each generation feels for the one to succeed it, we are here – alive.

And thus we do not ask if the future will exist, but what it will look like, how it will feel and who will be there if perhaps we are not?

The Iraqi Defense Minister, Abdul Qadir, gave us one possibility. In January 2008 he announced the likelihood of United States involvement in Iraq until 2018 (view article). As we stand in a present day full of uncertainties (climate change, recession, elections, technology, etc.) they must now be considered against the backdrop of a decade of war.

Asked to share their visions of 2018, the artist responses range from demise and chaos to growth and hope. Some look to the past and others foresee its repetition. Despite their variations an air of uncertainty and trepidation lingers. Given the short span of time a decade constitutes, perhaps it is an uncertainty not for generations to come but our own.

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