Everyone Will Die but I Always Think I Won’t
Curated by Mingying Lu
Artists: Dan K Chen, Terike Haapoja, Jingyao Huang, Jordan Metz, Evan Roth, Jayoung Yoon
April 18 - May 1, 2024
The MA Curatorial Practice program at the School of Visual Arts in New York is pleased to present Everyone Will Die but I Always Think I Won’t, curated by Mingying Lu. In an era when digital legacies challenge the finality of death, Everyone Will Die but I Always Think I Won’t explores mortality as it is redefined by technology today. The exhibition invites viewers to consider our transformed existential narrative in the digital age—how we live, die, and persist in both meaningful and chilling ways in collective memory.
Terike Haapoja's video diptych juxtaposes visible and infrared footage of a deceased calf, indicating the body’s heat loss and invoking thoughts about the liminal space between life and death. Dan K Chen's installations question the role of technology in end-of-life care and the ethical implications of robotic interventions in the most intimate moments of human existence. Jayoung Yoon's hair sculptures draw upon the Buddhist concept of impermanence, using the tangible medium of human hair to evoke the fleeting nature of existence. Jingyao Huang's installation, inspired by personal memories of her grandfather, serves as deeply personal and is an homage to the power of remembrance in the face of loss, contributing to the exhibition's broader discourse on the persistence of memory. Jordan Metz's generative audiovisual works posit the body as a site of conflict and confluence between our digital and physical selves, reflecting on the nature of identity in an age when the self can be infinitely replicated and manipulated in virtual spaces. Evan Roth's digital prints, crafted from the contents of his online wanderings, reveal the intimate layers of our online identities.
Everyone Will Die but I Always Think I Won't aims to be a memento mori for the digital age. It challenges us to view our final chapter not with resignation, but with a sense of curiosity and wonder, encouraging a dialogue with the unknown. The exhibition serves as a reminder that