Mark Lewis examines Pierre Huyghe's post-apocalyptic film Untitled (Human Mask)

A new publication from Afterall's One Work series features filmmaker Mark Lewis's analysis of Pierre Huyghe's 19-minute film Untitled (Human Mask). The film opens with drone shots of a Japanese town devastated by earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown, featuring a monkey in a human mask as a guide. Lewis weaves close reading, free association, history, philosophy, and theory to explore themes of creativity, time, apocalypse, and humanity. The book is described as an essay alive to racial politics, digital culture, and the fragility of ownership, embedded in cinema, painting, and moving image history. Praise from Shep Steiner (University of Manitoba) and André Mesquita (Museu de Arte de São Paulo) highlights the work's contribution to understanding Huyghe's poetics and its political meditation on a post-apocalyptic future. The publication is available via MIT Press and M HKA store.