Homeostasis - Maelee Lee
Curated by: Thalia Vrachopoulos
Artillery building, Fortezza - Rethymnon
Opening: Friday, June 23, 2023, 19:30
Contemporary Art Museum of Crete proudly presents the exhibition Homeostasis: Maelee Lee curated by Dr. Thalia Vrachopoulos, from June 23rd through August 8th, 2023. Homeostasis will open with a reception on June 23rd, starting at 7:30 pm at the Artillery Building within Fortezza Rethymnon.
The term "homeostasis" scientifically describes the internal functioning of a life form, through which, the living organism safely maintains in a stable state its internal chemistry, despite all external changes. The smooth maintenance of body temperature, the concentration of glucose in the blood, or the pH of extracellular fluid precisely serve as valuable tools, necessary safety valves and biological thermostats, through which, the fragile health of a living being is preserved. Likewise, the philosophical idea that our planet actually constitutes a living organism, which moreover contains a maintaining "soul", the well-known "anima mundi", already exists in Plato and Stoicism, while the same idea reappears today, differently expressed as "the Gaia Hypothesis”, or “Gaia Principle”. James Lovecock, in his book, "The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning" clearly defines it as follows: “A view of the Earth introduced in the 1980s that sees it as a self-regulating system made up from the totality of organisms, the surface rocks, the ocean and the atmosphere tightly coupled as an evolving system. The theory sees this system as having a goal—the regulation of surface conditions so as always to be as favorable for contemporary life as possible".
Thus, the Earth similarly contains its own homeostatic function, which ensures that "life" is maintained smoothly against all "harmful" human, or non-human pathogens. The brutal division of the planet into warring nation-states, the imminent danger of atomic weaponry and of an impending nuclear holocaust, or the looming rise of artificial intelligence amidst global economic, political, technological and cultural “warfares” and the unrelenting catastrophes of an unstoppable climate-change represent a terrible risk for the balancing activity of the entire planet, as well as for the various social structures, which are slowly being deconstructed due to their feeble inability to contain the conflicting impulses of a raging humanity. Lee's manifold artworks, from the series “Homeostasis”, selectively imbued with a visual and material maximalism, similar to the works of Vik Muniz, sublimely express the unbearable concern for a lost “homeostasis” of a sick planet-organism; a contemporary, activistic "Skrik" against the unhealthy conditions, which destroy the delicate balance of the earth, but also a modern, triumphant “memento mori” in relation to the endless fluidity of all temporal things, or as Lee vigorously reveals in her statement; "my work starts from the origin of the existence of all things in the universe and is concerned with the life and death of human beings and the creation and disappearance of peoples and nations. It starts from the question of the organic relationship between the rise and fall of various nations and the replacement of peoples, the history of civilization that has repeated the cycle of the entire human race, and the finitude of life.”
Free entrance
Opening hours: Daily 10-2 & 6:30-8:30p.m, Sunday closed.
