almost midnight

"100 seconds to midnight
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, known widely for its internationally recognized Doomsday Clock, was created in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They describe their mission succinctly as a publication that “equips the public, policymakers, and scientists with the information needed to reduce man-made threats to our existence.” These major threats include nuclear weapons, climate change, disruptive technologies, cyber warfare, and a decrease of trust in institutions. Every January since 1947 the Bulletin announces how many minutes we are from midnight, or less poetically put— the apocalypse.
The clock was 17 minutes to midnight when I was born in 1992 — the farthest from midnight it has ever been since the start of doomsday timekeeping. In 2020 the clock was set for 100 seconds to midnight, where it has remained since. Midnight has never been closer.
In January of 2021, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists released their annual Doomsday Clock statement with this urgent warning: “The pandemic revealed just how unprepared and unwilling countries and the international system are to handle global emergencies properly. In this time of genuine crisis, governments too often abdicated responsibility, ignored scientific advice, did not cooperate or communicate effectively, and consequently failed to protect the health and welfare of their citizens.”
It is still 100 seconds to midnight.
With multiple disasters happening concurrently, including climate change and the pandemic, the times we are collectively living through provide a fertile breeding ground for feelings of hopelessness, ennui, and derealization. After a year of isolation time began to lose its rhythm.
Days blended into one soupy grey mess. Days spent waiting and wasting away. While the doomsday clock is representative of our time left on the planet, the clocks in the installation keep track of nothing. The numbers are inaccurate, they add up to nothing resembling our standard methods of timekeeping. These clocks do not represent time, but instead our emotional connection to it, how long or short something feels.
The works created for this installation are mediations on time, negative unwanted feelings, death, and disaster. Though physically lightweight, they are limp and flaccid, slumping with a tangible heaviness that mirrors the exhaustion and hopelessness of a depressed body. The three figures act out various stages of grief, anxiety, and depression; they know it’s 100 seconds to midnight, and it appears they are incapable of handling that fact."