One Possible Future

Pierre Gervois, One Possible Future (2022), Video, 15s, 1080 x 1080 pixels.

On May 2nd, 2022, in an extraordinary instance, a U.S. Supreme Court initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito was leaked to the press (and authentified the day after by the Chief Justice). This draft majority opinion -technically a working document- clearly states that Roe v. Wade must be overruled, ending the federal protection of abortion, and leaving the matter to be regulated by the states.

As I was working on the piece that I had promised to create and submit to Joanne Rush, literary editor of The Tickle magazine, I suddenly decided to create a new work based on this remarkably rare occurence.

The theme I was asked to work on was “Futures”. I was intrigued by the plural and had started to explore different pieces under different angles and was going for a piece and a story taking place in a community of space travelers on another planet in a distant future.

In the night from May 2nd to May 3rd, 2022, I changed my mind about my initial projects and created the piece “One Possible Future”.

This draft majority opinion, by its ephemeral nature and the fact that we were not supposed to read it, illustrates the concept of “Futures”. Two possible futures can be decided for women in America when the final SCOTUS decision will be made.