Philadelphia, PN
Why would anyone want to “embargo the sun”? It’s a slogan hand-painted on one of the many banners that comprise “Seed the Future,” an installation by Sean Starowitz that also includes printed lawn signs trumpeting the cause of a group called Friends of Carbon. (“Fossils keep the lights on” is one of their mottos.) No such group exists, of course, but Starowitz’s speculative protest signage is not so far from the arguments touted by the fossil fuel industry and the conservative governments and individuals who keep it running, and promise to continue doing so until there’s not much left—of life, that is, on this planet. What to do? Anything! Everything! And so Starowitz grows mushrooms on studio refuse, builds hemp bricks, and creates vast drawings of industrial energy and its end-times on paper using biochar, among other materials. “Waiting for Noah,” as one of his posters proclaims, is definitely not what he’s doing.
—Lori Waxman 10/15/2023 2:38 PM