A future unknown to me except as the whisper of plea reflects on the confrontational duality of desire and caution in a time of coping with the impactful shifts that have affected us both individually and collectively. As we are rushing to a state of normalcy that brought us to the current situation, we seem to be creating new spaces of relationality within the old spaces without replacing them; meanwhile, we strive to kindle intimacies with others in efforts to leave disaffection and solitude behind. In a socio-political race to the past so as to resume the future, how do we make room for healing and moving on despite the uneasiness and alertness we have internalised? How can we regather the self so it can become fragmented and plural in reclaimed intimacies?
Simnikiwe Buhlungu’s My Dear Kite (You Can But You Can’t) - Late Yawnings 01h43 navigates the dilemma of a displaced in/out[door] activity of play, while simultaneously attempting to make sense of the socio-cultural consequences that have arisen from the pandemic, as well as the artist’s own bodily and geographic [dis]placement from Johannesburg, South Africa, having recently moved to The Netherlands.
Anne-Lise Coste’s paintings were made in New York after moving to the city for the first time in 2009, in a quest for change, belonging, and love in a new environment. They show a bunch of uncanny entities that populate the crowded streets of the city, with ranging emotions that ultimately mirror the artist’s own. On the other hand, Coste’s drawings are candid statements on queer desire and intimacy.
Daniele Formica’s works bear the notion of regeneration within ever-changing social and emotional landscapes. The harvest, as well as the sunset and the sunrise, are cycles of abundance and scarcity that happen anew in constant repetition. Nevertheless, how have we changed every time the cycles start and end? Acknowledging that we cannot escape from such patterns of repetition, how do create folds within them for alternative guides to imagine otherwise?
Erin Johnson’s Lake revolves around the complexities and interplay in collective living. Drawing closer and drifting away, queer and desirous exchanges arise within the gentleness of the water, in recognition and reconnection with nature. Intimacy and distance are interrelated; intimacy giving someone a space to inhabit that they did not have before encountering you*. In expanding kinship between human and nonhuman entities, Lake invites us to reflect on mutuality and reciprocity in a suspended time frame.
Maria Pask’s I am the CEO of my love life. Flush them out. This is for you, Orlando is a learning exercise of where one’s borders are and how to deal with addictive behaviours in the pursuit of sexual intimacy. The mystery, flexibility, fluidity, and unpredictability of the octopus challenges a heteronormative understanding of sexuality, while the crown symbolises a declaration of self-esteem when grappling with transgressive behaviour.
Curated by Sergi Rusca
