Planetary Dysphoria Preview 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. 17 October 18 October – 7 November 2019
Planetary Dysphoria explores humanistic and existential perspectives on climate change: an emergent aesthetic tied to notions of melancholy and uncertainty. We are experiencing a state of unease and dissatisfaction suffusing our economic, social and cultural life, engendered by a newfound sensitivity to the real and imagined destruction of Earth. The continuously increasing discomfort and urgency that pervades public debate on climate change have caused a global sense of an uncertain future. A new generation of artists is responding to this collective anxiety, pairing future thinking and the Anthropocene with ideas of fiction and truth, temporality and memory, escapism and shame. Planetary Dysphoria presents painting, sculpture, installation, digital print and photography. Ayse Kipri’s wallmounted structures points to the construction cycle of urban landscapes where derelict buildings are knocked down, erased and replaced; raising questions around memory, time and the importance of place. Andreea Ionascu’s installations are explorations of artificial realities and metamorphic narratives researching limits and rifts, creating tactile languages through the absence of visual specificity and the potential of a shared contemporary perspective. Araminta Blue’s paintings interrogate contradictions in human nature: control and protection, exploration and destruction, the hero and the parasite. Mert Acar photographs the borders between city and country side, investigating hybrid lands as both expressions of current environmental conditions and as constructed realities. Michela de Nichilo explores aesthetic judgement and ideas of value in relation to the vulnerability and potentiality of nonhuman beings and the current ecological crisis. For Planetary Dysphoria, she is focusing on a domestic setting, interrogating the idea of the aquarium, ornamental fish and artificiality. Sofia Bonato looks at the role of the individual, escapism and subtle manifestations of collective anxiety. Her digital prints employ playful postinternet imagery, nodding at consumer culture and the continuous paradox of recycling and wasting. Planetary Dysphoria is curated by Art Elsewhere and Sara Thorsen Fredborg and hosted by Generation & Display with the generous support of Queensrollahouse Artists’ Studios. Generation & Display Queensrollahouse 18 Trading Estate Road Park Royal London NW10 7LU www.artelsewhere.com | artelsewherelondon@gmail.com | +44 7492 465745 Find us on social media Instagram artelsewherelondon | Facebook artelsewherelondon | Twitter art_elsewhere