Rise Of The Machine 2 | Mark Davies

Rise Of The Machine 2, is a limited edition artwork by British digital artist Mark Davies.

Story Behind The Artwork

This piece is the sequel to another piece that I created in 2019 as part of my ‘Retrospective’ collection that proved so popular I had to crack on with it. The concept for both pieces focuses upon a collection of Robots and man-made machines rising up and taking back control to become the dominant force. In the first piece we saw ‘Johnny 5’ running amok in the ‘Lost in Hollywood’ (did you see what I did there?!) world of an abandoned theme park. Rebelling against what he was programmed not to do and with a blatant disregard for the rules set by the management, the neckerchief-wearing blaggard graffiti’s over everything that he can get his boney little fingers on!

My initial plan was to set this sequel in another part of the theme park. Throughout my ‘Storyteller’ works I would spend countless hours searching for inspiration for derelict and abandoned settings I would often come back to scenes from the theme park within ‘Pripyat’- the ghost city in Ukraine that was devastated by the nuclear disaster. A brutal example of man-made machines failing spectacularly. What I loved was how the theme park and surrounding buildings within the city had slowly been taken over, not by man but by nature. I have always loved this concept and I simply adapted this for my ‘Rise Of The Machine’ narrative, where this time the machines fought back.

When conceiving and creating a new collection, it for me is always intense and immersive so that I can release a truly cohesive body of work. It was because of another piece from this ‘Retrospective 2’ collection that what you now see for ‘Rise Of The Machine 2’ is completely different to my original plan. This came from binging on ‘Breaking Bad’ for my ‘Let’s Cook, Bitch!’ piece and from a scene that was set in an old car breakers yard. It just stuck and the end result is something that I am incredibly happy with.

The intention for my ‘Retrospective’ ongoing body of work is one where I invite the audience to step inside the eye of my mind as I revisit memories from my formulative years and early adult-hood, the ones with minimal responsibility! The great thing with this is the crossover between a whole number of experiences that involved sport, music and movies and so on. I love the chance to blend these in with my ‘Lost In Hollywood’ collections, but with a lighter, less conceptually intense narrative and an ability to add focus to the characters that I typically leave out of view. I love combining films into one piece, to suggest that these characters all resided at the same time just in different areas but came together eventually. It is just pure good fun!

There is so much to seek out within this scene, legends such as R2-D2, C-3PO, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee shine amongst the shifting sands that surround the ominous car crusher. Other more subtle objects come to life just seconds after being previously hidden by the sand as the wind reveals them to you. What I hope is that you will stumble across a small detail that you maybe not identify immediately but on closer inspection remember how much you loved that movie and that then ignites a linked memory to that. This is what it does for me, and I ultimately feel better for it and closer to my childhood as a result.

Progress is made by the improvement of people, not the improvement of machines.