The artist writes “The Sixth Extinction highlights the vulnerability and crisis of our earth in our age of anxiety and climate change. The three women are allegorical figures: Gaia, the primordial earth goddess, a caryatid and a naiad—all classic characters drawn from the history of art and cast to symbolize humanity’s precarious position.” The central figure Gaia has a prosthetic leg, which alludes to our technologically-driven attempts to fix the climate crisis. “There is a drone in the sky, and the large circle around the central figure is something like a camera view, or target… [that] refer[s] to the predominance of both technology and the sense of how it has infiltrated every aspect of our lives.” On the left a Caryatid holds up civilization. On the bottom right sits a Nereid (water nymph). Together the three figures symbolize earth, air, and water; all necessary elements for life on this earth. There are wild and domestic animals throughout the scene, pointing to how climate change affects not just humans, but all creatures.
