Art inspired by the Doomsday Clock aims to ‘confront the disillusionment of our time’

Sam Heydt is an accomplished author, producer, and lifelong activist who has undertaken a range of altruistic, non-profit work. Her art is anchored in social advocacy and attempts to give a voice to the veiled, forgotten, exiled, and silenced. Heydt’s work has been shown in galleries, museums, art fairs, and film festivals worldwide. And, recently, Heydt released a collection of art inspired by the Doomsday Clock that she titled 100 Seconds to Midnight.

In the collection, Heydt combines images of destruction with portrayals of the virtues born from the American Dream to “confront the disillusionment of our time with the ecological and existential nightmare it is responsible for.”

Heydt grew up watching the Doomsday Clock count down from 17 minutes to 100 seconds to midnight and says it has been instrumental in informing and inspiring her work. 

“The edge is closer than we think,” she says. “In a time marked by mass extinction, diminishing resources, global pandemic, and climate change, the future isn’t what it used to be.”

Central to Heydt’s work “is the industrialization of the natural world under the myth of progress.” She believes life and its environment are intertwined, but our relationship with nature is broken—our resources exhausted, oceans depleted, reefs bleached, landscape enflamed. 

Having spent close to two decades documenting scarred landscapes and working with marginalized communities, Heydt is no stranger to the myriad of forms exploitation takes. 

By presenting multiple series within a singular iteration in 100 Seconds to Midnight, Heydt aims to share a comprehensive illustration of the complexities of our time and the existential challenges ahead of us.  

With the Doomsday Clock the closest it has ever been to midnight, Heydt says: “I hope this collection does the silent work art does: inform, inspire, and incite.” 

View more of Heydt’s work here.