Liminal Junkies

Hannah Rose Stewart & Alberto Troia

22.07.2021—28.08.2021

The narrative-based film, situated within the site specific multi-media installation explores liminality as a significant function in the recuperation of play. Focusing on the gamification of contemporary systems in a post-feudal, playground terrain the characters explore a lucid landscape of assets compounded within the ruins of hyper-capital. The two lost characters in “liminal junkies” particularly explore the detrimental effects that this form of gamification and the exploitation of labor for profit has on the concept of self-hood and agency. As the protagonists delve further into the liminal space led by a carrier bag, they come across the unhinged presence of the big other. Self imprisoned in his castle, he offers them a cabinet of dispersed contingencies for their meager seeds. People come and go. So do portal openings of dying planets. Not so long ago, this tiny star, nestled behind one of her big brother Firenze X2’s eight moons, was filled with the sound of electro-swing music and the laughter of human children. A carnival with a beating heart. Surrounding the festive grounds breathed an enormous forest with trees so tall you had to squint to see the canopy. Sooner or later word of this idyllic place got out to neighboring planets, ones whose populations had razed their earths, fracked deep into cores and secreted their noxious sludge for centuries. Half-brained farmers came with monstrous machines that plowed down the trees, and sent them back to other planets for fuel or in exchange for money. Inhabitants of Firenze X2 watched as Antella Ax quietly started to dim. They say all that’s left there are the farmers, caught in an endless loop with no other purpose than to harvest specks of burnt char, in the hopes that someone will buy. Before the last plant was plucked from the soil to be devoured, I saved its seeds. One lonely, tattered sunflower grew from the bunch. I’ve sent him and a young goblin to Antella Ax in hopes of saving the wounded star, so she can once again foster life. The portals open and close very quickly–they will have to hurry.