Gallery hours: 12 – 6pm

“Our culture is defective. Perhaps you mean that we ought to study the problem and look for a solution. Perhaps we could, if it wasn’t so late. Altogether too late.” [The Sacrifice – Andre Tarkovsky]

Anemoia is a group exhibition that addresses the climate crisis through the concept of nostalgia as a future oriented emotional experience. This exhibition brings together the diverse practices of five artists: Andrea Nhuch, David Daigle, Sahar M. Abadi, Niusha Barahimi and Taylor Griffith. Makeshift hybrid plants resembling a post-human garden, video projections, photographs and assemblage propose a dystopian future landscape. The dialog between the works invites reflection on the complex interplay between humanity, nature, and the climate crisis.

Anemoia, a term denoting nostalgic feelings for a time or place one has never experienced, finds new meaning within the context of this exhibition. It serves as a reflection on our regretful detachment from nature, symbolizing the growing divide between human and nature. Ultimately, Anemoia stands as an elegy for a lost, decaying future, capturing the anxiety of living amidst technologically advanced ruins of our dreams.

Abadi’s multi-channel video, Where we were, suspends the viewer in a loop. The video uses aerial perspective to hover upon ancient ruins, a smooth pattern of decay and dissolve. The choreography of space, objects and ideas poetically addresses themes of time, as history and duration, and the visual and spatial codes of a civilization. One channel of the video mines the visual language of numbers, simultaneously reminding that history repeats itself, that this is a pattern that repeats itself throughout history. The sound element of the video adds a thematic complexity through describing the cycle of life and death as well as humanity’s tendency for war and destruction.

Nhuch’s installation, Speculative Now is a series of sculptures centered around the strict use of materials to question the relationship between the natural and artificial. The collection of works are presented as a hybrid conceptual forest that has mutated and is resilient to human intervention. Man-made materials, such as sheet metal, plastic, glass, and rubber latex, act as both contaminants and prosthetics for found wood, tree trunks and twigs. Nature and culture are entangled in a material symbiosis in an attempt to speculate about post-human landscape aesthetics.

Daigle’s piece titled Petrol is an inflatable nightmare of a melted gasoline pump. In a world where we prioritize our dependency on fossil fuels, we risk the damage of these fuels permanently altering our own bodies. The unexpected growth of hair, teeth and even eyeballs from the work refer to genetic mutations caused by chemical leakage, explosion and pollution.

Griffith’s video, Staring Into The Abyss of an Archipelago, offers a captivating juxtaposition between the deep ocean and outer space, using two distinct perspectives. It was filmed both in the waters off the Galapagos Islands and on the Channel Islands, creating a space for contemplation of the non-human world, often regarded as the last frontiers of exploration. The footage was captured using a low-light camera, surpassing the sensitivity of the human eye with an impressive 4 million ISO capability. In this way, the work invites viewers to reflect on the depths of the ocean and the vastness of space, reminding us of the unexplored abysses that lie beyond our current understanding and perceptions of reality.

Barahimi’s series titled, Photosynthesis, are large format analog photographs which deal with the concept of waiting and change. The works presented in this exhibition draw on the political economy of waiting, utilized by control mechanisms to direct people’s movement, their desire and hope. Photosynthesis is a biological process that converts light energy into chemical energy, the same way in the film photography light falls into the silver halides to produce an image: Waiting for the imperceptible changes to make a difference.

IG: @thenhuch, @daviddaigle_studio, @sahar.m.abadi, @niusha.barahimi, @510tay

For media inquiries, interviews, or further information, please contact:
Shiva Abadi
shiva.maba@gmail.com
(213) 819-2669