Species Regret
An exhibition of writing, installation and sound in Tokyo.
Species Regret is a 2016 exhibition of writing, sound, installation and prints by Ian Lynam. The exhibition is accompanied by the release of a new book of collected fiction in a signed and numbered limited edition of 100 at Goya Curtain in the Nakameguro district of Tokyo.
Species Regret explores notions of what the world might be like if gods of the Hellenic and Norse tradition walked the earth today. Within the exhibition, the development of identity of self is examined through object relations study, mythology, projection, introjection and, ultimately, narrative.
In lieu of a traditional opening, a series of 4 unique and informal readings were held in June of 2016 drawing from material within Species Regret’s greater cosmology, including unpublished writing.
Quoting the introduction to the new book, “Today, we live in more or less a godless world—we look to the collapse of the Greek economy rather than to Hellenic tradition. This eschewing of the past and what is culturally perceived as the basis of Western civilization offers up further identification with the gods and heroes of yore: if gods and their offspring walked the earth today, they would be irrelevant beings of tradition and immense might. Simultaneously, they would be losers of the sorest sort—defeated, withdrawn, aimless and immensely fucked-up.”
Drawing upon the narratives within the new book, a series of darkly resonant standalone typographic prints were created alongside a two-track cassette tape soundtrack that explores the concept of identificatory mimetism—the negotiation of the projected and introjected self in relation to mythology.
Accompanying these elements are an installation of insidious found objects presented as seeming evidence as to the presence of the supernatural in our world.