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Solastalgia

Solastalgia Installation at Apothecary Gallery, 2018

A propped TV monitor, bananas and empty 5 gallon water bottles on the floor of the gallery

This gallery installation brought together three of the single-channel videos (Part 1, 2, and 3 of the Solastalgia Cycle), with a variety of objects that reflected the expanding territory of work/live arrangements—5-gallon water bottles, diffuser (neroli, vitiver, bergamot), bananas, coffee beans, ottoman, Crocs—items that might belong in a home office or a “flexible” office culture like those popularized by Silicon Valley tech companies, designed to create a situation in which employees have fewer reasons to leave.

The presentation of the Solastalgia Videos in this environment links these videos of the stages of grief with the consuming work conditions that link life inextricably with work, are premised on unsustainable growth, and drive economic and policy decisions while promoting an image of clean tech and orientation around community.

Corner of a light-filled gallery. A pile of newspapers sites in the corner under a spider plant. To the right is a small end table with a a tablet and headphones ontop. Cement floor.
View of a small grey table with cracked tablet and a landscape

The Solastalgia Cycle videos address the psychological and emotional implications of life in the Anthropocene—dealing with grief and loss in particular. Each video relates to a different node on the Kübler- Ross Grief Model (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance), centering on the body and physiological experience, and conjuring a subject grieving the terminal prognosis of life as we know it.

A wide view of the gallery with newsprint take-away, grey and iron table to the left, TV monitor, water bottle, throw pillow, bananas and headphones in the center. More 5 gallon empty water cooler bottles to the right.