Sunset Send-Off: we live in explosive times

Emily Parsons-Lord + Sara Morawetz {the empty set}

The explosion is a site of extreme emotional volatility, capable of eliciting fear, terror, awe, and delight. It is a site of natural, astronomical, and chemical wonder — an expression of the elements that exist in the sky above and that dwell deep beneath our feet. The explosion is also political — expressing force and velocity, causing reaction and fragmentation. Yet it remains a visually arresting spectacle, one that captivates us with its beauty and intensity — a material representation of our perverse fixation on acts of physical destruction. We live in explosive times. The act of destruction is a spectator sport.

From Fusebox Emily Parsons-Lord and collaborator Sara Morowetz, otherwise known as {the empty set}, stage installations and performances with ephemeral substances, like air, smoke, and fire, to create a unique chemistry of ideas. In the contemplative work we live in explosive times, they stage a slow-burning encounter with audiences fuelled by the political and ecological crises we live in. As devastating wildfires rage across the world: California, Brazil, and most recently the artists home country of Australia, the work asks us to think about the world we’ve made, what we’ve lost, and how we might kindle hope.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.