As a child, Ed Atkins would sit alone while his parents were out, mentally rehearsing tragic scenarios in which they might die. “I figured if I imagined it, then fate would be less likely to make it real,” says the 42-year-old artist. Though none of those imagined disasters came to pass, eventually, life dealt a real blow. In the final year of his postgraduate studies, Atkins’ father, Philip, was diagnosed with cancer. He passed away six months later—coinciding with Atkins’ graduation show in