Elisabeth Smolarz: Mélloncene

The exhibition Mélloncene serves as a symbolic reminder of our disconnection from the natural world, and the underlying grief stemming from the ongoing daily loss of hundreds of species who coexist with us on this planet. In her most recent body of work consisting of photographs and videos, Seeing a Tiger Didn't Change Who I Am, Elisabeth Smolarz grapples with the current age of mass extinction. In an effort to address the dire situation faced by the most endangered species, she inserts instructions on how to prevent their extinction into the source codes of public domain images. The resulting photographs and videos appear fragmented, evoking the sense of artifacts unearthed by future archaeologists many centuries from now.