escapism

The concept of escapism connects SMB11 One Escape at a Time (2021) with the SMB01 city: between 0 and 1 (2000). The main exhibition of SMB01 was titled “Escape” and co-curated byJeremy Millar, who drew inspiration from James G. Ballard’s sci-fi short story “Escapement” (1956) in which modern individuals experience temporal disorientation. In his exhibition, Millar explored new media spaces and the experiences unfolding within them. By contrast, the real-world context for SMB11 was the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, when many people collectively experienced both literal and symbolic forms of escapism in response to widespread lockdowns. Chinese geographer Yi-Fu Tuan’s essay “Preface to Escapism” (1998) was reprinted in the SMB11 catalogue, describing culture as escapism that derives from the uncertainties and threats of the natural environment. Tuan argues that while culture is a product of imagination, is also ironically develops out of methodologies of burying and hiding the harsh economic and political realities that facilitate and perpetuate culture itself. Thus, the goal of escapism is not simply as a fantasy that is disconnected from external reality, nor a pessimistic attitude toward the hardships of everyday life, but as a means of recognizing the good that has already been achieved by humans.