SADIE LASKA

In 1970, the United States government enacted the Clean Air Act with the intended purpose of regulating air pollution; which, at the time, was hovering consistently at levels objectively dangerous to our health. The same decade saw a technological boom which ostensibly set the stage for our current tech landscape. We were, for the first time in history, swimming in electronics. This phenomenon introduced a new type of pollution we had neither the means nor the foresight to regulate: Electrosmog.

Electrosmog is the vaguely semi-scientific catch-all term for the accumulated waves, fields, and rays which supposedly emit from our electronic devices. The electrosmog surrounding us has been accumulating since that fateful decade, after which the technological advancements occurred so rapidly that our world has become crowded with obsolete devices that were abandoned at peak functionality as soon as the newer model made its debut.

In her flag series, Laska employs a format which is inherently politicised and merges it with stylised elements taken from previous works. Rather than integrating actual cut and pasted fragments, Laska processes the images into simplified, recognisable, and repeatable forms. The commodification of the flag extends to the figure, the telephones, the airplanes, and the fragmented phrases which float across Laska’s surfaces. The process of dissecting, abstracting, and reassembling lends a sense of uncanniness and disorientation––a mental fog brought on by all the electrosmog.

Francesca Pessarelli | The Page Gallery