Tendency to Collapse (Anthropocene Anarchive)

May 2022, Collar Works, Troy, NY

exhibition text PDF

Dining table, asphalt, concrete, table salt, roadside herb hydrosol, dirt perfume, edible waste (apple peels, fish heads, trash herb pesto, dehydrated limes, charcoal bread, compost cookies)
Digital prints, two-channel video

This work explores the collapse of material categories in The Anthropocene,* an epoch where distinctions between ‘natural’ and ‘man-made’ are increasingly irrelevant. This installation focuses on waste as a site through which to question these distinctions, and reconsider our material encounters with the environment. Through various sensory artifacts and edible sculptures, the work is meant to suggest that taste and smell can be relational forces to counteract destructive categorizations in Modernity. Two Anthropocene “landscape” tableaus were sited on the gallery floor, where guests could forage for edible components. Media and sensory artifacts (food and perfumes) were based on wastescapes, neglected urban sites, and landfills in the Capital Region of New York and Queens, NYC.

Edible artifacts were created in collaboration with chef Josh Coletto of Nighthawks.Asphalt donated by artist Ellie Irons, from her unlawning project, the “Lawn (Re) Disturbance Laboratory.”
Waste fish product donated in part by Hudson Valley Fisheries.

* This term marks an era where mankind has the greatest impact on planetary systems, causing us to reconsider the differences between nature and culture.