The exhibition explores instability and one popular way to overcome it. Specifically, delegating control to external forces and declaring something a distraction from confidence in the future.
This strategy, taken to its extreme, is rapturous anticipation. It allows us to effortlessly fill each day with a valuable sensation—the thrill of anticipation. A wave of new spiritualism—we listen to the sighs of the future. After all, although we don’t know exactly when, the right tomorrow will surely arrive soon.
However, there is no future, because it isn’t arriving, but rather being moved toward. And they may even reach it, unless they encounter retrograde Mercury, the god of new deals, exchanging what they desire for what they enjoy.
The exhibition’s visual language is built on the grotesque—both the significance of expectation and the exaggeratedly serious discussion of it. Expectation as a habit, as a process that so conveniently replaces critical thought. Expectations as a state in which the enthusiastic anticipation of solving problems «at the stellar level» coexists with a willingness to blame retrograde Mercury for a failed life. The hope of seeing signs of future salvation in small details.
(PollyT)
Artists:PollyT, Anastasia Belyakova, Chloe Kailani, Svetlana Kalashnikova, Natalia Lotareva, Natalia Mezheritskaya, Alexandra Meleshkova, Elizaveta Narkevich, Yulia Parfenova, Anna Salimzyanova, Ekaterina Solovieva, Angelina Ushko, Elena Feklistova, Margarita Khatmullina, Ekaterina Shafir
Photos:PollyT, Alexandra Ptitsa, Grigory Yakimov
Exhibition page on the Zverevsky Center for Contemporary Art websiteExhibition page on the NNFN website