The Labyrinth

walls are constantly being built to divide and claim the natural resources

April 25, 2019

Due to the shortage and subsequent competition of natural resources in near speculative future, strong attention to resource ownership raised. Walls and borders are built to divide and claim these resources, reducing nature to its mere utility. More and more partitions are built until eventually the entire planet is turned into one gigantic ‘labyrinth’ with no way out; a trap of their own making. 

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Intrigued by the concept of the ‘climate refugee’, Qiaoer Jin and Zhengyi Zhang put forward that climate change has a systematic and catastrophic impact on human life. Not only does it cause a rise in global temperatures and sea levels, but climate change also poses long-term challenges on the very fundamental resources upon which our lives rely on: access to clean water, energy and nutrition. By constructing a fictional future in which humanity has suffered this apocalyptic crisis, The Labyrinth explores the fatal challenges that climate changes present. 

Displaying the films on suspended monitors and constraining the ways an audience engages with the content, creates an imposing experience whilst confronting the viewer with the inevitable, uncomfortable future that lies ahead, unless our behaviour as a global community is dramatically changed.

video installation