This video is part of Adam Turl's installation, The Barista Who Could See the Future, on display as part of the Exposure 19: Jumbled Time exhibition at Gallery 210 in St. Louis through December 2, 2017 (also featuring artists Lizzy Martinez and Stan Chisholm). The installation and short video “documentary” above center around the story of Alex Pullman – a coffee shop worker and artist who claimed he had visions of the future. A zine accompanying the installation, supposedly written by Pullman, reads as follows.
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The Barista Who Could See the Future, installation and video at Gallery 210
RED MARS: FIRST VISION
I can see and hear a future revolution on colonized Mars – using the telescope on my back porch, off old Highway 13, between Murphysboro and Carbondale.
ALIEN COMMUNE: SECOND VISION
The bombs and missiles of WWIII froze above the world’s cities as the UFOs arrived. Later that day long-dead communards reappeared – walking anachronisms on the streets of each city and town.
THE GREAT CALL OUT: THIRD VISION
In 2071, a million climate refugees, fleeing a flooded Manhattan on makeshift rafts, gathered in the North Atlantic to denounce each other. Each raft then declared itself to be an independent nation-state.
THE HEALING PROPERTIES OF POST-INDUSTRIAL DEBRIS: FOURTH VISION
In the late 21st century residents of deindustrialized neighborhoods and towns discovered that industrial debris had healing properties. An International Harvester factory bell from Canton, Illinois was found to cure metabolic and circulatory disorders. When the former factory owners claimed the bell the townspeople fought them for three days. Eventually the National Guard and State Police were called in to seize the Bell. It was then used at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago. Cost per use: $2.75 million.
COYOTE'S LAST SPEECH: FIFTH VISION
A thousand years after the humans died the animals built a new civilization. But they quickly divided themselves into social classes. Rich animals exploited and oppressed the poor animals. One day, Coyote gave the perfect speech. And all the poor animals united against the rich animals. But Tree Frog murdered Coyote in his sleep. The poor animals found Tree Frog and dissected him to see what was inside.
Adam Turl is an artist and writer who lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and St. Louis, Missouri. He is an editor at Red Wedge Magazine and an art critic for the West End Word. Turl's recent exhibitions include Thirteen Baristas at the Brett Wesley Gallery (Las Vegas), Kick the Cat at Project 1612 (Peoria, Illinois) and The Barista Who Could See the Future as part of Exposure 19 at Gallery 210 (St. Louis). In 2016 he was awarded a residency at the Cité internationale des Arts in Paris, France. He is an adjunct instructor at the University of Nevada.