Hello World

Taken from the introductory line of code “Hello World”, this inaugural exhibition at Possibly Sometime Tomorrow introduces eight artists whose works reveal the contradiction of making art in an increasingly absurd and disorienting world.

In uncertain times, artists often respond with bold declarations. Yet, when overt statements fail to resonate, some turn to the absurd. By focusing on the small, the silly, and the nonsensical, they find a way to persist. This approach is deeply rooted in Paris’s historical role as a crucible of the absurd.

Every artist eventually grapples with the idea that the world lacks inherent meaning. Each work in this exhibition reflects a universe filled with contradictions where the simplest acts of creation become gestures against existential despair. From a flattened car to crumpled suits, termite- infested circus tents, a house made of pencils and earthenware pots made from clay collected in the artist’s garden, an ancient attempt to begin society anew, akin to the rebirth symbolized by the phrase “hello world”.

These “mundane” objects exist alongside photos of fireworks like flashes of light or shooting stars – a celebratory war-like spectacle. Two depictions of nuclear bombs are infantilized by being described as “mushroom clouds”. Seemingly trivial, everyday art objects are set within the endless threat of self destruction.

PST is a home for these peculia responses to our current “material conditions”. It is no coincidence that a great explosion of absurdity in Paris followed World War II. Today, both the city and the world face a new kind of meaninglessness, with circumstances that feel impossible to resolve. PST provides a space for the quiet joy of creation amidst discomfort, where the small is expanded and the large is reduced.

“You must go on. I can’t go on. I’ll go on” – Beckett, the unnamable, 1953